Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Aug 9;19(1):81.
doi: 10.1186/s12937-020-00591-3.

Dietary habits associated with growth development of children aged < 5 years in the Nouna Health and Demographic Surveillance System, Burkina Faso

Isabel Mank  1 , Alain Vandormael  2 , Issouf Traoré  3   4 , Windpanga Aristide Ouédraogo  3 , Rainer Sauerborn  2 , Ina Danquah  2
Affiliations

Dietary habits associated with growth development of children aged < 5 years in the Nouna Health and Demographic Surveillance System, Burkina Faso

Isabel Mank et al. Nutr J. .

Abstract

Background: Knowing which dietary habits are associated with child growth could lead to better long-term health outcomes and improve the design of food-based interventions. We aimed to identify dietary habits that are associated with the growth development of children aged < 5 years living in rural Burkina Faso.

Methods: This study used cross-sectional baseline data from 514 children (8-59 months) within the Nouna Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) in 2018. Household socio-demographics and child dietary habits, height and weight were assessed. We constructed scores for dietary diversity (DDS) and food variety (FVS), and extracted exploratory dietary pattern scores (DPS) using principal component analysis (PCA). Child growth was measured using height-for-age (HAZ) and weight-for-height z-scores (WHZ). We used multiple-adjusted linear regressions considering for socio-economic factors to quantify associations.

Results: In this study population (median 36 ± 14 months old), stunting (HAZ < - 2) was seen in 26% and wasting (WHZ < - 2) in 7%. The DDS (median 7 ± 2 food groups) was positively associated with WHZ, while the FVS (median 13 ± 8 food items) was inversely associated with HAZ. We identified 4 dietary patterns: leaves-based, beans and poultry-based, maize and fish-based, and millet and meat-based diets. Only the maize and fish-based diet showed a statistically significant and here positive trend for associations with WHZ.

Conclusion: Growth development of children aged < 5 years continues to be a health problem in the Nouna HDSS. A higher dietary diversity and food variety and dietary patterns characterized by maize and fish and beans and poultry intake appear to be beneficial for growth of young children in this area.

Keywords: Burkina Faso; Child growth; Dietary diversity; Dietary pattern; Stunting; Wasting.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Intake frequencies (mean and SD) of servings per week for 30 food items among children aged < 5 years (n = 514) in the Nouna HDSS
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), World Health Organization (WHO) Guiding principles for complementary feeding of the breastfed child. Washington, D.C: PAHO/ WHO; 2003.
    1. Arimond M, Ruel MT. Dietary diversity is associated with Child nutritional status: evidence from 11 demographic and health surveys. J Nutr. 2004;134(10):2579–2585. doi: 10.1093/jn/134.10.2579. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Arimond M, Ruel MT. Progress in developing an infant and child feeding index: An example of using the Ethiopian demographic and health survey, FCND Discussion Paper No. 143. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); 2002. Available from: https://www.ifpri.org/publication/progress-developing-infant-and-child-f....
    1. Ruel MT. Operationalizing dietary diversity: a review of measurement issues and research priorities. J Nutr. 2003;133(11):3911S–3926S. doi: 10.1093/jn/133.11.3911S. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Steyn N, Nel J, Nantel G, Kennedy G, Labadarios D. Food variety and dietary diversity scores in children: are they good indicators of dietary adequacy? Public Health Nutr. 2006;9(5):644–650. doi: 10.1079/PHN2005912. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types