Water insecurity potentially undermines dietary diversity of children aged 6–23 months

Evidence from India

Datos Bibliográficos

ID15535829
AutoresL J Mckerracher (0000-0002-9687-6896, Center for Global Health, School of Human Evolution and Social Change Arizona State University Tempe Arizona), Neetu Choudhary (0000-0001-5854-229X, Arizona State University, autor de correspondencia), Roseanne C Schuster (0000-0002-3747-5267, Center for Global Health), Roseanne Schuster (Center for Global Health, School of Human Evolution and Social Change Arizona State University Tempe Arizona), Alexandra Brewis (0000-0003-3769-4205, Center for Global Health), A Wutich (0000-0003-4164-1632, Center for Global Health)
Año2020
Volumen16
Número2
Páginase12929-e12929
Fecha de publicación2020-01-30
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaMaternal and Child Nutrition (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1740-8695 • E-ISSN: 1740-8709
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/mcn.12929
PMID31999395
OpenAlexW3004225954
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas15
Referencias citadas55

Dietary diversity is a crucial pathway to child nutrition; lack of diversity may deprive children of critical macro and micronutrients. Though water along with hygiene and sanitation is a known driver of child undernutrition, a more direct role of household water in shaping dietary diversity remains unexplored. Existing literature provides a sound theoretical basis to expect that water could affect dietary diversity among young children. Here, we test the proposition that suboptimal household access to water and low regional water availability associate with lower dietary diversity among young children. Using the nationally representative 2015-2016 India Demographic and Health Survey data, we conducted a probit analysis on the sample of 69,841 children aged 6-23 months to predict the probability that a child achieves minimum standards of dietary diversity (MDD). After controlling for relevant socioeconomic and gender-related covariates, we found that children in household with suboptimal household water access were two percentage points less likely to achieve MDD, when compared with those from households with optimal water access. Children in high water availability regions had nine percentage points greater probability of achieving MDD compared with children from low water availability regions, accounting for household water access. As dietary diversity is central to nutrition, establishing the role of water access in shaping early childhood dietary diversity broadens the framework on how household material poverty shapes child malnutrition-independent of sanitation and hygiene pathways. This provides additional window for nutrition planning and intervention wherein water-based strategies can be leveraged in multiple ways

Agriculture · Dietary diversity · Diversity (politics · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental health · Food security · Geography · Hygiene · Improved sanitation · Malnutrition · Population · Poverty · Sanitation · Socioeconomic status · Socioeconomics · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations · Medicine · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare