Animal source food intake is lower in households with children who experience food insecurity

Abstract

Animal source food (ASF) intake in young children has been associated with improved dietary quality and growth outcomes. The ENAM project provides technical and financial support for income generation activities of caregivers of young children in selected districts in Ghana, with the goal of improving household food security and ASF utilization in children's diets. Baseline data from the ENAM project was analyzed to compare child dietary intakes and anthropometry between 123 households that experienced child‐level food‐insecurity and 391 households in which children were food secure. Caregiver wealth rank (p<0.001), occupation (p=0.004), weekly income (p=0.011), and locality (p<0.001) were associated with food security among the children in the past month. The likelihood of eating ASF and the frequency of consuming ASF within the past week were positively associated with children's food security (p<0.01). However, child WHZ (95% CI: −0.20, 0.22); WAZ (95% CI:−0.18, 0.25) and HAZ (95% CI:−0.22, 0.35) did not differ by food security status. In this setting, food security was related to ASF intake but not anthropometry in 2‐ to 5‐y‐old children. Support was through GL‐CRSP, funded in part by USAID, Grant # PCE‐G‐00‐98‐00036‐00.