How well do different dietary and nutrition assessment tools match? Insights from rural Kenya

Various indicators and assessment tools exist to measure diets and nutrition. Most studies eventually rely on one approach. Relatively little is known about how closely results match when different tools are used in the same context. The present study compares and correlates different indicators for the same households and individuals to better understand which indicators can be used as proxies for others.

A survey of households and individuals was carried out in Kenya in 2015. Seven-day food consumption and 24 h dietary recalls were administered at household and individual level, respectively. Individual height and weight measures were taken. Different indicators of food access (energy consumption, household dietary diversity scores), dietary quality (individual dietary diversity scores, micronutrient intakes) and nutrition (anthropometric indicators) were calculated and correlated to evaluate associations.

Rural farm households in western Kenya.ParticipantsData collected from 809 households and 1556 individuals living in these households (782 female adults, 479 male adults, 295 children aged 6-59 months).

All measures of food access and dietary quality were positively correlated at individual level. Household-level and individual-level dietary indicators were also positively correlated. Correlations between dietary indicators and anthropometric measures were small and mostly statistically insignificant.

Dietary indicators from 7d food consumption recalls at the household level can be used as proxies of individual dietary quality of children and male and female adults. Individual dietary diversity scores are good proxies of micronutrient intakes. However, neither household-level nor individual-level dietary indicators are good proxies of individual nutritional status in this setting.