School of Human Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia.
Global Studies Institute, The University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Matern Child Nutr. 2022 Jul;18(3):e13363. doi: 10.1111/mcn.13363. Epub 2022 Apr 29.
Both child growth and dietary diversity are poor in rural Timor-Leste. The rainy season is associated with food scarcity, yet the association between seasonal scarcity, food diversity, and child growth is underdocumented. This study assesses the relationship between household dietary diversity and children's standardized growth across the 2018 food-scarce (April-May; post-rainy period) and post-harvest (October) seasons in the agricultural community of Natarbora, on the south-coastal plains of Timor-Leste. We conducted household interviews and collected anthropometric data across 98 and 93 households in the post-rainy and post-harvest periods, respectively. Consumed household foods were obtained via 24-h diet recalls and were subsequently categorized into a nine-food-group dietary diversity score (DDS; number of different food groups consumed). The DDS was related to children's standardized short-term growth (z-weight, z-body mass index [BMI] and percent change in weight over the harvest season) via linear mixed models. Across seasons, DDS increased from 3.9 (standard deviation [SD] = 1.0) to 4.3 (SD = 1.4; p < 0.05). In the post-rainy season, children in high DDS households had higher z-weight than those in low DDS households and higher z-BMI than children in medium and low DDS households. In the post-harvest period, household DDS did not predict children's z-weight but predicted z-BMI. Consumption of protein-rich foods, particularly animal-source foods and legumes, in low- and medium-DDS households may be associated with improved child growth. While consuming more animal-source foods in the post-rainy season would be ideal, promoting the consumption of locally grown legumes, such as beans and pulses, may facilitate better nutritional outcomes for more children in rural Timor-Leste.
东帝汶农村地区儿童生长和饮食多样性均较差。雨季与食物匮乏有关，但季节性匮乏、饮食多样性与儿童生长之间的关系尚未得到充分记录。本研究评估了在东帝汶南部沿海平原纳塔博拉农业社区，2018 年食物匮乏期（4 月至 5 月；雨季之后）和收获后（10 月）季节中，家庭饮食多样性与儿童标准化生长之间的关系。我们在雨后和收获后期间分别对 98 户和 93 户家庭进行了家庭访谈和人体测量数据收集。通过 24 小时饮食回忆获得家庭食用食物，并将其归入九类食物组饮食多样性评分（DDS；食用不同食物组的数量）。通过线性混合模型，DDS 与儿童短期标准化生长（z 体重、z 体重指数 [BMI] 和收获季节体重变化百分比）相关。在两个季节中，DDS 从 3.9（标准差 [SD] = 1.0）增加到 4.3（SD = 1.4；p < 0.05）。在雨后季节，高 DDS 家庭的儿童 z 体重高于低 DDS 家庭，zBMI 高于中低 DDS 家庭。在收获后季节，家庭 DDS 不预测儿童 z 体重，但预测 zBMI。低和中 DDS 家庭中富含蛋白质的食物，特别是动物源性食物和豆类的消费，可能与儿童生长改善有关。虽然在雨后季节食用更多的动物源性食物是理想的，但促进当地豆类（如豆类和豆类）的消费可能会为更多的农村东帝汶儿童带来更好的营养结果。
