Determinants of Food Acceptance and Micro-Nutrient Deficiency in Preschoolers: A Case Study of Households from Karachi, Pakistan

Zammurud Subzwari, Abid Hasnain and Muhammad Ali

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: This study attempts to find out the determinants of food acceptance and micro-nutrient deficiency in preschool children from Karachi, Pakistan. Primary data was collected through survey from 400 households by interviewing and filling up the questionnaire. Index for food acceptance and micro-nutrient deficiency were constructed with the help of related questions from the questionnaire. Econometric models were developed and Logit techniques was employed to estimate probability of end indicator. Our results show that increase Micro-Nutrient Deficiency (MND) may cause lower level of Food Acceptance and vice versa. On the other hand, modeling food acceptance may indicate higher level of MND among preschoolers reduce the acceptance level of appropriate food. Other important variables like Household Income, Mother’s Literacy and Mother’s Maternal Knowledge showed significant effects and appropriate signs of coefficients as per expectations. On the basis of these findings, if government targets the core independent variables that are identified in the analysis, Food Acceptance level can be increased amongst the children and Micro- Nutrient Deficiency could then be reduced. Consequently government intervention, both long term and short term are needed to provide and regulate the food acceptance behavior either at household level or at other form so that our generation could be healthier and more productive which would lead the economic growth of a country which is abundant in labor.

Keywords: Food acceptance; preschoolers; nutritional status; micronutrient deficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A10 C50 I10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008, Revised 2008
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in Pakistan Journal of Nutrition 4.8(2009): pp. 321-326

Downloads: (external link)
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/14640/1/MPRA_paper_14640.pdf original version (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:14640

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany Ludwigstraße 33, D-80539 Munich, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joachim Winter ().