Home Gardening Is Associated with Filipino Preschool Children’s Dietary Diversity

1. Home Gardening Is Associated with Filipino Preschool Children’s Dietary Diversity Aegina B. Cabalda, PuraRayco-Solon, Juan Antonia A. Solon, Florentino S. Solon Lily Dickson Nov. 20, 2012

2. Introduction • Undernutrition- • stunting, wasting, micronutrient deficiencies • Low and middle income countries suffer • Inadequate food intake usually primary cause • 923 million are chronically hungry • In Philippines: • protein energy malnutrition • micronutrient deficiencies • Rise of food prices raise global concerns for prevalence of hunger

3. Food Security • At a minimum, nutritionally safe foods are readily available in socially acceptable ways • With rising food prices, households may be faced with changing their quantity, quality, and/ or diversity of their consumptions • Dietary Diversification: expanding and diversifying food productions • Home Gardening improves: • consumption of fruits and vegetables • child health and nutritional status • household food security and income • women’s empowerment

4. Purpose • Determine the associations between home gardening and the dietary diversity of preschool-aged children in urban and semi-urban areas in the Philippines

5. Methods • Study conducted in Rizal, Philippines • Baras- Rural, predominantly agricultural community • Angono- urban, sources of income are trading, farming, fishing, manufacturing • Rizal has high prevalence of: (Children <5y.o.) • Underweight (35%) • Vitamin A deficiency (30%) • Anemic (36%) • Households with children 2-5 y.oselected • 55% boys, 45% girls • 76% children underweight • 60% children under height • 100 Households from Baras, 100 from Angona

6. Procedure • Household Visits- interview children’s mother • Socioeconomic and Demographic characteristics • Household Food Security- • 0-1 high or marginal food security • 2-4 low food security • 5-6 very low food security • Diet Diversity-asked if child consumed food items from set of 10 food groups • score of 0-10 • Frequency of vegetable consumption • Morbidity history- fever or diarrhea during last 2 weeks • Home gardening- • Simple: 1-2 varieties of vegetables are scattered and seasonal • Improved: 3-4 varieties but not productive all year • Developed: > 3 varieties of vegetables thru whole year • Anthropometric status-children weighed and measured

7. Results- Quantitative

8. Frequency of Vegetable Consumption %

9. Results • 52% households with gardens • 40% simple gardens • 26% improved gardens • 34% developed gardens • 48% without • No statistical differences: • anthropometric measurements • nutritional status • Urban vs. rural regions • Parents age, education, income, household size, food expenditure, number of appliances • Garden associated with: • More varied diet • Less illness • Statistical significance: • Dietary diversity scores • Vegetable consumption • Vitamin A rich fruit consumption: • 2/3 with gardens • ½ without

10. Discussion • Positive associations between having a home garden • child’s diet diversity • fruits and vegetable consumption • Home gardening is a good tool to teach children healthy habits and diversify their diets • Results apparent in children even at a very young age

11. Conclusion • This study showed statistical significance in regards to dietary diversity and willingness to eat vegetables between preschoolers living in a household with and without gardens • Possible improvements: • Different place where agriculture is not as dominant • Different age children • Rural vs. Urban • Limitations of water, land, good soil, etc.