Abstract
Animal source foods (ASF) provide nutrients essential to child growth and development yet remain infrequently consumed in rural Nepal. Agriculture and nutrition programs aim to increase ASF intake among children through small-scale animal husbandry projects. The relationship between livestock ownership and children’s consumption of ASF, however, is not well established. This study examined associations between livestock ownership and the frequency with which Nepali children consume eggs, dairy, and meat. We analyzed longitudinal 7-day food frequency data from sentinel surveillance sites of the Policy and Science of Health, Agriculture and Nutrition (PoSHAN) study. Data consisted of surveys from 485 Nepali farming households conducted twice per year for two years (a total of 1449 surveys). We used negative binomial regression analysis to examine the association between the number of cattle, poultry, and meat animals (small livestock) owned and children’s weekly dairy, egg, and meat intakes, respectively, adjusting for household expenditure on each food type, mother’s education level, caste/ethnicity, agroecological region, season, and child age and sex. We calculated predicted marginal values based on model estimates. Children consumed dairy 1.4 (95% CI 1.1–2.0), 2.3 (1.7–3.0) and 3.0 (2.1–4.2) more times per week in households owning 1, 2–4 and >4 cattle, respectively, compared to children in households without cattle. Children consumed eggs 2.8 (2.1–3.7) more times per week in households owning 1 or 2 chickens compared to children in households without chickens. Child intake of meat was higher only in households owning more than seven meat animals. Children’s intakes of dairy, eggs, and meat rose with household expenditure on these foods. Small-scale animal production may be an effective strategy for increasing children’s consumption of eggs and dairy, but not meat. Increasing household ability to access ASF via purchasing appears to be an important approach for raising children’s intakes of all three food types.
Highlights
Animal source foods (ASF) provide essential nutrients for healthy cognitive and physical development of young children [1,2,3,4]
Two survey rounds conducted between September and February each year comprised unique seasonal assessments, while one survey round conducted between May and July each year was undertaken as part of nationally scheduled PoSHAN surveys during those months
Expenditure on meat was highest compared to the other food groups, with 83% of observations indicating that households purchased meat in the 30 days prior to the survey; these households spent a median amount of 1000 Nepali Rupees (NPR) on meat
Summary
Animal source foods (ASF) provide essential nutrients for healthy cognitive and physical development of young children [1,2,3,4]. To improve the availability and consumption of ASF, interventions promoting small-scale livestock production are increasingly being implemented in Nepal and other low-income rural settings [8,9,10]. Several recent reviews of the agriculture-nutrition literature conclude that a more detailed understanding of how livestock ownership is related to children’s ASF consumption is needed in order to determine if and how small-scale livestock production programs can be leveraged to improve child nutrition [15,22,23]
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