Premium
Do babies eat what mothers eat? The relationship between maternal and child dietary diversity in Bangladesh, Vietnam and Ethiopia
Author(s) -
Nguyen Phuong H.,
Avula Rasmi,
Saha Kuntal K.,
Ali Disha,
Tran Lan M.,
Frongillo Edward A.,
Rawat Rahul,
Ruel Marie T.,
Me Purnima
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.243.7
Subject(s) - concordance , medicine , psychological intervention , dietary diversity , demography , environmental health , child health , pediatrics , geography , food security , archaeology , sociology , agriculture , psychiatry
Diverse diets are linked to better child growth from 6 mo onwards. Interventions typically focus on educating mothers about the importance and ways of improving child dietary diversity (DD). However, new evidence suggests that maternal and child DD are associated. Data from surveys on mother and child (6–24 mo) dyads in Bangladesh (BD), Vietnam (VN) and Ethiopia (ET) were used to explore the concordance and strength of the association between maternal and child DD and determine if maternal DD can predict child's minimum DD. DD scores were derived from 24‐hour recall of intake of foods from 7 groups. Fair mother/child concordance (kappa = 0.23–0.40) was found for intake of legumes, dairy and eggs in BD and ET; animal‐source foods (0.26) and eggs (0.27) in VN; and vitamin A‐rich vegetables in ET (0.23). Multivariate regression analysis showed a strong association between maternal and child DD in all 3 countries, suggesting that education should focus on improving both maternal and child DD, rather than child DD only, to maximize benefits for both mother and child. The area under the curve values from receiver operating characteristic analysis were greater than 0.7 and significant in all 3 countries, indicating that maternal DD could predict child DD. However, because a standard maternal DD cut‐off point could not be identified, both indicators should be measured in large surveys to accurately estimate mother and child DD. Funding support from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, through Alive & Thrive, managed by FHI360