Rural and Urban Differences in Household Food Insecurity and Diet Diversity of Preschool Children (PSC) in Occidental Mindoro

ABSTRACT

@#Objective. Rural and urban differences affect food availability, accessibility, and sustainability; thus, it has a great impact on household food security and dietary diversity. The relationship between the human environment and other factors threatens different domains of food systems resulting in food security. The objective of this study is to determine significant differences between the prevalence of household food security and diet diversity between urban and rural communities in Occidental Mindoro. Specifically, to determine the pattern of usual food intake of preschool children between rural and urban communities Methods. This study utilized a comparative, cross-sectional, analytic study design in order to determine the prevalence of each variable of interest in the two study areas. Radimer-Cornell Tool was utilized to assess the food security status of the household while the FAO-Dietary Diversity Score Questionnaire was used to the diversity of diet among PSC. A total of 480 (rural n=240; urban n=240) preschool children were recruited to participate in this study. Ratio and proportion using the point and interval estimate were used to determine the prevalence in different areas, meanwhile, chi-square of homogeneity was used to determine significant difference in the two areas under study. Results. Food insecurity in rural communities was found to be at 56.25% (95% CI 49.97% to 62.53%) while the prevalence in urban communities was 45.83% (95% CI 39.53% to 52.14%). There was a significant difference in the prevalence of household food insecurity between rural and urban communities (p=0.0224). Meanwhile, the prevalence of less dietary diversity among preschool children in rural communities was 37.08% (95% 30.97% to 43.19%) and 26.25% (CI 20.68% to 31.82%) for urban communities. There was a significant difference in prevalence of low dietary diversity score among preschool children between rural and urban communities (p=0.0107). Conclusion. There were significant differences in terms of household food insecurity and less diverse diet between two community settings. Higher prevalence in rural areas signifies that there is a need to prioritize these vulnerable communities in terms of hunger mitigation and nutrition programs. A combination of milk-rice-meat-fish was observed in the diet of preschool children for both communities however, higher prevalence of less dietary diversity was detected among rural communities.