Home Gardening Is Associated with Filipino Preschool Children’s Dietary Diversity

Home Gardening Is Associated with Filipino Preschool Children’s Dietary DiversityAegina B. Cabalda, Pura Rayco-Solon, Juan Antonia A. Solon, Florentino S. Solon

Lily DicksonNov. 20, 2012

Introduction Undernutrition-

stunting, wasting, micronutrient deficiencies

Low and middle income countries suffer

Inadequate food intake usually primary cause

923 million are chronically hungry In Philippines:

protein energy malnutrition micronutrient deficiencies

Rise of food prices raise global concerns for prevalence of hunger

Food Security At a minimum, nutritionally safe foods

are readily available in socially acceptable ways With rising food prices, households may be

faced with changing their quantity, quality, and/ or diversity of their consumptions

Dietary Diversification: expanding and diversifying food productions Home Gardening improves:

consumption of fruits and vegetables child health and nutritional status household food security and income women’s empowerment

Purpose Determine the

associations between home gardening and the dietary diversity of preschool-aged children in urban and semi-urban areas in the Philippines

Methods Study conducted in Rizal, Philippines

Baras- Rural, predominantly agricultural community

Angono- urban, sources of income are trading, farming, fishing, manufacturing

Rizal has high prevalence of: (Children <5y.o.)

Underweight (35%) Vitamin A deficiency (30%) Anemic (36%)

Households with children 2-5 y.o selected 55% boys, 45% girls 76% children underweight 60% children under height

100 Households from Baras, 100 from Angona

Procedure Household Visits- interview children’s mother

Socioeconomic and Demographic characteristics Household Food Security-

0-1 high or marginal food security 2-4 low food security 5-6 very low food security

Diet Diversity-asked if child consumed food items from set of 10 food groups score of 0-10

Frequency of vegetable consumption Morbidity history- fever or diarrhea during last 2 weeks Home gardening-

Simple: 1-2 varieties of vegetables are scattered and seasonal

Improved: 3-4 varieties but not productive all year Developed: > 3 varieties of vegetables thru whole year

Anthropometric status-children weighed and measured

Results- Quantitative

Food Security Score Dietary Diversity Score Dietary Diverstiy Score 10g min.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Without GardenWith Garden

Frequency of Vegetable Consumption

<1 time/ week 1-2 times/ wk 3-4 times/ wk 5+ times/ wk0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Without GardenWith Garden

%

Results 52% households with gardens

40% simple gardens 26% improved gardens 34% developed gardens

48% without No statistical differences:

anthropometric measurements nutritional status Urban vs. rural regions Parents age, education, income, household

size, food expenditure, number of appliances

Garden associated with: More varied diet Less illness

Statistical significance: Dietary diversity scores Vegetable consumption

Vitamin A rich fruit consumption: 2/3 with gardens ½ without

Discussion Positive associations

between having a home garden child’s diet diversity fruits and vegetable

consumption Home gardening is a

good tool to teach children healthy habits and diversify their diets

Results apparent in children even at a very young age

Conclusion This study showed statistical

significance in regards to dietary diversity and willingness to eat vegetables between preschoolers living in a household with and without gardens

Possible improvements: Different place where agriculture is not as

dominant Different age children Rural vs. Urban Limitations of water, land, good soil, etc.