Household Characteristics, Housing Profile and Diet Diversity of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) Beneficiaries and Non-beneficiaries in Lucena City, Quezon, Philippines

Abstract

Background. The Philippines adopted the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) that serves as the government’s flagship social assistance program for the poor. This provides short-term income support to poor families while investing on health and education to overcome future poverty.
 Objective. This study aimed to characterize the beneficiary and non-beneficiary households and evaluate the impact of 4Ps program on housing facilities and diet diversity.
 Methods. Quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate survey outcomes between 91 randomly sampled beneficiaries and 91 completely enumerated non-beneficiaries (incoming grantees). FANTA Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) was used as an indicator for dietary diversity while structured questionnaire on housing profile was based on BIDANI and CEM-UPLB tools.
 Results. The 4Ps beneficiaries had significantly higher maternal education, household size (ρ=0.038), and improved water source (ρ=0.004) than non-beneficiaries. Cash transfer among 4Ps households provided 11% increase in the average monthly income of P7,324 pre-transfer. Diet diversity using FANTA scoring (0-12) showed that nonbeneficiaries were significantly lower by 0.4 than 4Ps score of 7.9 (ρ=0.003). Maternal education was found to have significant positive correlation with diet diversity. Both groups had high cereals and fats intake (>90%) while low in complex carbohydrates and legumes (<31%).
 Conclusion. The 4Ps had positive correlation on housing profile and diet diversity among beneficiaries. Family Development Session should integrate practical methods on improving variety of foods, specifically, the low consumption food groups. Additionally, a review on the selection criteria based on the provincial poverty threshold vis a vis income of grantees must be implemented to accurately target intended beneficiaries.