Socio-economic patterning of food consumption and dietary diversity among Indian children: evidence from NFHS-4

Most interventions to foster child growth and development in India focus
on improving food quality and quantity. We aimed to assess the pattern in
food consumption and dietary diversity by socioeconomic status (SES) among
Indian children. The most recent nationally representative, cross-sectional
data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4, 2015-16) was used
for analysis of 73,852-74,038 children aged 6-23 months. Consumption of
21 food items, seven food groups, and adequately diversified dietary intake
(ADDI) was collected through mother’s 24-h dietary recall. Logistic regression
models were conducted to assess the association between household wealth
and maternal education with food consumption and ADDI, after controlling
for covariates. Overall, the mean dietary diversity score was low (2.26; 95%
CI:2.24-2.27) and the prevalence of ADDI was only 23%. Both household
wealth and maternal education were significantly associated with ADDI
(OR:1.28; 95% CI:1.18-1.38 and OR:1.75; 95% CI:1.63-1.90, respectively), but
the SES gradient was not particularly strong. Furthermore, the associations
between SES and consumption of individual food items and food groups
were not consistent. Maternal education was more strongly associated with
consumption of essential food items and all food groups, but household
wealth was found to have significant influence on intake of dairy group only.
CONCLUSIONS: Interventions designed to improve food consumption and
diversified dietary intake among Indian children need to be universal in their
targeting given the overall high prevalence of inadequate dietary diversity
and the relatively small differentials by SES.