Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) Difference Among Preschool Children (PSC) in Rural and Urban Communities

Individual DDS aims to reflect nutrient adequacy and have been validated for several age groups as proxy measures for nutrient adequacy. This study aims to determine if there is a significant difference in mean DDS of PSC between urban and rural communities in Occidental Mindoro, Philippines. Specifically, this study aims to determine the usual food intake of PSC among each food group. A total of four-hundred eighty (480) PSC were used as primary sampling unit. Food Agriculture Office-DDS was used in order to assess adequacy of food intake. Five (5) was used as the cut-off for diet adequacy. Mean difference and two independent population proportion was assessed using STATA software. DDS among rural communities (4.90) was lower compared to the cut-off point for adequacy; thus, it needs more priority compared to the adequacy of urban households (5.15) (p=.04). The minimum diversity score cut-off of diet adequacy among children was five (5); wherein increase in dietary score is related to dietary adequacy. Adequate dietary intake coming from varied sources was highly related to the improvement of nutritional status among children. As number of food groups increases, nutrition adequacy rating among children also increases. Furthermore, dietary intake among PSC were predominantly coming from rice-fish and vegetable combination coming from at least four to five groups. Lastly, lowest intake among food group was found in other fruits, legumes, pulses and nuts. This result would imply that there is a need to reinforce government programs which were prepared to increase the intake of the population particularly preschool children. Mean DDS among rural communities was lower compared to urban communities. Usual food patterns for both communities was combination of rice-fish and vegetable however, urban communities had higher consumption rate among food groups. Therefore, type of community must take into consideration during nutrition program planning in order to improve the diet adequacy of PSC.

Keywords – DDS, nutrition, preschool children