An Assessment of Dietary Diversity and Nutritional Status of Preschool Children

Dietary diversity is gaining prominence in assessing diet adequacy of individuals and households in developing countries. Dietary diversity or food variety is not known in Tobago. This study's purpose therefore was to assess dietary diversity, food variety and its relationship to the nutritional status of preschool children. A cross-sectional descriptive study design was implemented and a structured, culturally sensitive questionnaire with a 24-hour recall procedure was used for data collection. A representative sample (n=423), stratified by parish, population density, gender and age, was recruited from public and private pre-schools. Less than half (48%) of the preschoolers met minimum dietary diversity. Approximately 33% consumed food items from 5 or more food groups and 19%had low dietary diversity scores (DDS). Mean scores were obtained for food variety (9.37 ± 2.4) and diversity (4.19 ± .83). Nutrient adequacy ratios (NAR) for eleven nutrients were calculated and correlated with DDS, food variety scores (FVS) and nutrition indices. Notable percentages (11.35%) of the children had acute malnutrition, while 10% were underweight and ~5% exhibited chronic malnutrition. NAR for various micronutrients were significantly (p < 0.01) correlated with DDS. NAR for energy moderately predicted weight-for-age (WAZ) z-scores (r=0.437, p=0.000), height-for-age (HAZ) z-scores (r=0.413, p=0.001) and weight-for-height (WHZ) z-scores (r=0.466, p=0.000). With notable levels of malnutrition and minimum dietary diversity observed among this group of preschoolers, it is important that stakeholders work collaboratively in coming up with integrated approaches to health and nutrition, in order to improve the wellbeing of its children.