Determinants of household dietary practices in rural Tanzania: Implications for nutrition interventions

A household cross-sectional survey of a sample of 120 households to analyze consumption practices and determinants of household dietary diversity in rural areas of differing agro-climatic conditions in Tanzania was conducted in four villages of Morogoro and Dodoma regions. The respondent was the mother/woman or any other person responsible for food preparation and serving in the household. The inclusion criteria were those women who had given consent to participate, those from a rural area and in the age bracket 15 to 49 years. Data were collected using the Food and Agriculture Organization dietary diversity questionnaire with twelve food groups. Two independent multinomial logistic regression models were used to establish relationships between dietary diversity and categorical variables in Morogoro and Dodoma regions. The mean dietary diversity scores were 4.7 and 4.1 for Morogoro and Dodoma, respectively. The Cereals were highly consumed by all households that participated in the study during the past 24 h preceding the survey and that the consumption of animal based protein foods was below 40%. Determinants of household dietary diversity in Morogoro included literacy status of the mother and prior nutrition training/knowledge. In Dodoma, cultivated land size, literacy status of the mother and distance to a water source determined household *Corresponding author: Hadijah A. Mbwana, Department of Food Science and Technology, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3006, Morogoro, Tanzania E-mail: [email protected] Reviewing editor: Fatih Yildiz, Middle East Technical University, Turkey Additional information is available at the end of the article