Correlates of dietary intake of lactating women in South Turkana.

Previous studies of nutrition among nomadic pastoralists in South Turkana, Kenya, have suggested that social mechanisms may be used to buffer vulnerable members of the group from acute nutritional stress. During 1989-1990, 24-hour dietary recall data were collected from 101 lactating women in Ngisonyoka, Turkana. Multivariate regression was then used to quantify the effects of environmental, socioeconomic, and demographic variables on dietary intake. The location of individual herding camps had the greatest impact on maternal diet. After the site of camps, rainfall patterns, the socioeconomic ranking of the herding unit, and the age and rank of wives were the most significant predictors of maternal food consumption. The results suggest that some women in the study were buffered from moderate seasonal nutritional stress by the practice of food-sharing among members of their social network, as well as by voluntary reduction in dietary intake by other women. Maternal dietary intake differed both qualitatively and quantitatively between herding camps of higher and lower socioeconomic ranking. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.