Name One Meat/Fish/Poultry/Egg indicator?

Can Organ Meats/Fish/Poultry/Eggs be combined into one "Animal protein" indicator for calculating dietary diversity in Children (IYCF indicator)? The IYCF indicator guidelines specify that meats/fish/poultry should not be grouped with eggs since each group is scored separately i.e M/F/P = 1 and Eggs=1. Why are they separated for calculation of children's dietary diversity score (IYCF indicator)? Is it because children are more likely to eat eggs? Or because of differences in micronutrient content?

They can be kept apart to keep a number of food groups such that summing the number of food groups consumed can act as a dietary diversity score (DDS). Along with meal frequency, the DDS is a composite of IYCF "habits" and food security. The idea is that higher DDS means less dependency (e.g.) on a single source of protein and, presumably), more resilience to shocks. We can also get food security data used DDS and meal frequency in mothers (the WDDS indicators). For IYCF you are free to adapt the larger WHO questionnaire to meet your needs. I hope this helps.

Mark Myatt

Technical Expert

Answered:

9 years ago

Thanks Mark. That makes sense. I've been trying to convince our M&E team that there is definitely a valid reason for eggs to be scored separately as a food group to calculate children's DDS. A wider variety of dietary protein sources providing greater resilience to shocks makes a lot of sense!

Deepa

Answered:

9 years ago

If you go below the basic 7 food-groups you will lose the DDS which is used in some of the WHO indicators and in the ICFI.

Mark Myatt

Technical Expert

Answered:

9 years ago

You can look at the following link. The historical background why Eggs is separated is stated as follow;
"There are several reasons why separating eggs may be useful. Because they are a
reasonably good source of vitamin A but a poor source of bioavailable iron, eggs are
nutritionally different from flesh foods. Unlike flesh foods, eggs do not enhance absorption of iron from plant foods. In addition, people often use eggs differently in terms of who is generally given eggs to eat, as opposed to flesh foods. Finally, a number of projects promote egg consumption and need to be able to assess changes in consumption of eggs specifically. They cannot do this if eggs are grouped with flesh foods."

http://www.micronutrient.org/nutritiontoolkit/ModuleFolders/3.Indicators%5CDietary%5CResources%5CFANTA_Complementary_feeding_indicators.pdf

Anonymous

Answered:

9 years ago