Srinivasulu Rajendran from the Centre for the Study of Regional Development at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, India presented on measuring household dietary diversity scores. The household dietary diversity score (HDDS) is a simple count of food groups consumed by a household over the preceding 3 days. It reflects a household's economic access to food. Food groups are categorized and each food group consumed is given a score of 1. The total HDDS is the sum of all food groups consumed and can range from 0 to 15. HDDS provides a snapshot of household food access but not nutrient adequacy of individual diets.

1. Srinivasulu Rajendran
Centre for the Study of Regional Development (CSRD)
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)
New Delhi
India
r.srinivasulu@gmail.com

2. Objective of the session
1. To measure dietary diversity scores that a
household has consumed over the preceding
3 days or 24 hrs

3. 1. How to calculate Dietary diversity scores
and
2.How to create other indicators of interest
from dietary diversity data

4. The Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS)
It is a simple COUNT
OF FOOD GROUPS
that a household or an
individual has
consumed over the
preceding 24 hours
(FAO Guidelines)

5. Food Groups?

6. Group No Food Groups Yes = 1 No=0
1 CEREALS
2 WHITE ROOTS & TUBERS
3 VITAMIN A RICH VEG. & TUBERS
4 DARK GREEN LEAFY VEG
5 OTHER VEGETABLES
6 VITAMIN A RICH FRUITS
7 OTHER FRUITS
8 ORGAN MEAT
9 FLESH MEATS
10 EGGS
11 FISH AND SEAFOOD
12 LEGUMES, NUTS AND SEEDS
13 MILK AND MILK PRODUCTS
14 OILS AND FATS
15 SWEETS
16 SPICES, CONDIMENTS, BEVERAGES
Source: FAO

7. Detailed commodity groups available
in
“Guidelines for Measuring Household
and Individual Dietary Diversity”
FAO

8. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT
TO UNDERSTAND THE
TYPE OF COMMODITY
INCULDES WHEN IT
COOKED

9. How HDDS reflect to Food
Security?
HDDS is meant to reflect,
in a snapshot form, the
economic ability of a
household to access a variety of
foods .
Source: FAO

10. Whereas, Individual Dietary
Diversity Scores aim to reflect
nutrient adequacy, BUT there
some evidences Women Dietary
Diversity Score (WDDS) also
reflects Household Economic
Access to Food
Source: FAO

11. Difference between
Household and Individual
Levels

12. Action Household Level Questionnaire Individual level
Questionnaire
What the Household economic access to food Quality of the individual
tool (dietary energy) diet; for women
measures probability of
micronutrient adequacy
of the diet
Respondent Person responsible for food preparation Women aged 15-49 years
for the household on the previous day or individuals in other
or last 3 days age/sex groups
Target of The household (All persons living The respondent
interest under the same roof who share meals)
Included Includes food: prepared in the home All foods eaten by the
and and consumed in the home or outside individual of interest,
excluded the home; or purchased or gathered consumed inside or
foods outside and consumed in the home outside the home,
irrespective of where they
were prepared
Number of 12 groups included in the HDDS 9 groups included in the
food group WDDS
included in Source: FAO
the score

13. BUT
Today we are
focusing on

14. “The Household Dietary
Diversity Score (HDDS)”

15. Data Sources
The
Household
Dietary Anthropometric
Diversity Score indictors
(HDDS)
Bangladesh Demographic
Chronic Poverty Study - and Health Survey (BDHS) -
IFPRI 2007

16. Reference Period
 FAO uses a reference period of the
previous 24 hrs, whereas IFPRI uses 3
days recall period.
 The recall period of 24 hrs was chosen
by FAO as it is less subject to recall
error, less cumbersome for the
respondent and also conforms to the
recall time period

17. When to measure dietary diversity?
 The optimal time of year to measure dietary diversity of
households or individuals depends on the objective of the
survey or monitoring activity.
 There are several scenarios to assist potential users in
planning surveys.
 More details please refer:
“Guidelines for Measuring Households
and Individual Dietary Diversity”
Source: FAO

18. Activities to undertake before beginning data collection
 Translation and adaption steps
(i) Basic translation
(ii) First Review
(iii) Key informant and community meeting to refine the food lists and
translations
 Technical issues to discuss prior to beginning data collection
 (i) Minimum quantities
 (ii) Individual food items that could be classified into more than one
food group (decide appropriate food group)
 (iii) mixed dishes: team will need to agree on a way to disaggregate
mixed dishes in order to record all of the individual components in
their respective food groups.
 Training Survey interviewers
Source: FAO

19. How to Create Dietary Diversity Scores
 As per FAO, Dietary Diversity Scores are calculated by
summing the number of food groups consumed in the
household or by the individual respondent over the 24
hrs recall period.
 Whereas, we are measuring on the basis of 3 days
recall period due to non-availability of data on 24 hrs
recall period.
Source: FAO

20. Step 1

21.  Create new food group variables for those food groups
that need to be aggregated.
 For example: HDDS the food group “Starchy staples” is
a combination of “Cereals” and “White roots and
tubers”. A new variable termed “Starchy staples”
should be created by combining the answers to
“Cereals” and White roots and tubers”.
 STATA Command:
 gen star_staple = 0
 replace star_staple = 1 if cereal ==1 | white_root == 1
 As a check, run a “Frequencies” test on all newly
created variables and make sure that all value are
either 0 or 1. There should be no values > 1 for the
newly created variable

22. Step 2

23. USING AND INTERPRETING RESULTS
 There are no established cut-off points in terms of
number of food groups to indicate adequate or
inadequate dietary diversity for the HDDS.
 Because of this, it is recommended to use the mean
score or distribution of scores for analytical purpose
and to set the programme targets.

24. When interpreting
the dietary
diversity score, it is
important to keep
in mind that

25. 1. The dietary diversity score does not
indicate the quantity of food consumed
2.Diet varies across seasons and some foods
can be available in large quantities and at
low cost for short periods
3.There may be urban/rural differentials in
dietary diversity. Variety is often much
greater in urban and peri-urban centres
where food markets are adequately
supplied and easily accessible