Dietary Diversity and Dietary Patterns in School-Aged Children in Western Kenya: A Latent Class Analysis

Tiange Liu, Sherryl Broverman, Eve S. Puffer, Daniel A. Zaltz, Andrew L. Thorne-Lyman and Sara E. Benjamin-Neelon
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Tiange Liu: Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
Sherryl Broverman: Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
Eve S. Puffer: Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University, Durham, NC 27710, USA
Daniel A. Zaltz: Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
Andrew L. Thorne-Lyman: Center for Human Nutrition, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
Sara E. Benjamin-Neelon: Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-12

Abstract: Inadequate diet among children has both immediate and long-term negative health impacts, but little is known about dietary diversity and dietary patterns of school-aged children in rural Kenya. We assessed dietary diversity and identified dietary patterns in school-aged children in Western Kenya using a latent class approach. We collected dietary intake using a 24 h dietary recall among students in elementary schools in two rural villages (hereafter village A and B) in Western Kenya in 2013. The mean (SD) age was 11.6 (2.2) years in village A ( n = 759) and 12.6 (2.2) years in village B ( n = 1143). We evaluated dietary diversity using the 10-food-group-based women’s dietary diversity score (WDDS) and found a mean (SD) WDDS of 4.1 (1.4) in village A and 2.6 (0.9) in village B. We identified three distinct dietary patterns in each village using latent class analysis. In both villages, the most diverse pattern (28.5% in A and 57.8% in B) had high consumption of grains, white roots and tubers, and plantains; dairy; meat, poultry, and fish; and other vegetables. Despite variation for some children, dietary diversity was relatively low for children overall, supporting the need for additional resources to improve the overall diet of children in western Kenya.

Keywords: micronutrient; dietary diversity; dietary pattern; children; Kenya; rural (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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