Marla Kiran Suryasai, Padmaja Ravula
Borlaug-Ruan Intern (2021) at International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Telangana, 502324, India.
University of California Los Angeles, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA.
BMC Nutr. 2023 Feb 27;9(1):36. doi: 10.1186/s40795-023-00692-2.
India's recent increase in urbanization alongside with feminization of rural agriculture could increase the existing gender disparities in dietary diversity. With many rural men migrating to urban areas, women have increased domestic burdens as well as productive burdens such as making informed crop production decisions so household members consume a diverse diet. Given the rapid and recent onset of this phenomenon, there is a need to explore gender differentials in diet diversity across urban and rural areas to assess if certain populations are being disproportionately impacted by this trend. There are limited established quantitative studies discussing this gender disparity with respect to urbanization. Therefore, this paper compares dietary diversity among adult men, adult women, adolescent males, and adolescent females in urban and peri-urban locations. The authors also assess if various sociodemographic factors correlate with dietary diversity.
Analyses were conducted on dietary diversity data collected by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) from selected urban (1108 individuals) and peri-urban (808 individuals) locations of Hyderabad, India. The total sample size of the population is n = 1816: 660 adult males, 662 adult females, 205 adolescent males, and 289 adolescent females.
Adult women and adolescent females have a higher diet disparity between peri-urban and urban areas when compared to adult males and adolescent males. Multivariate analyses followed by post hoc multiple comparisons testing further support that peri-urban adult women consume a less diverse diet compared to their urban counterparts and less than other peri-urban adult men and adolescent women. It was also found that marital status, type of household card owned, and the highest degree of education are statistically significant correlators of an individual's dietary diversity.
Given that urbanization could negatively impact already vulnerable populations such as peri-urban adult women, who play a key role in children's nutrition, it is important to provide support to these populations. This paper suggests it is possible to do so through government subsidization of peri-urban farmers to grow more diverse crops, fortifying easily accessible foods with commonly lacking micronutrients, including Vitamin A, folic acid, and iron, market access, and affordable prices.
印度近期城市化进程加快，同时农村农业女性化，这可能会加剧现有的饮食多样性方面的性别差异。随着许多农村男性迁移到城市地区，女性的家庭负担以及生产负担都增加了，比如要做出明智的作物生产决策，以便家庭成员能有多样化的饮食。鉴于这一现象迅速且是最近才出现的，有必要探究城乡地区饮食多样性方面的性别差异，以评估某些人群是否受到这一趋势的不成比例影响。关于城市化方面这种性别差异的定量研究有限。因此，本文比较了城市和城郊地区成年男性、成年女性、青少年男性和青少年女性的饮食多样性。作者还评估了各种社会人口学因素是否与饮食多样性相关。
对国际半干旱热带地区作物研究所（ICRISAT）从印度海得拉巴选定的城市地区（1108人）和城郊地区（808人）收集的饮食多样性数据进行了分析。总样本量为n = 1816：660名成年男性、662名成年女性、205名青少年男性和289名青少年女性。
与成年男性和青少年男性相比，成年女性和青少年女性在城郊和城市地区之间的饮食差异更大。多变量分析及事后多重比较检验进一步支持，城郊成年女性的饮食多样性低于城市成年女性，且低于其他城郊成年男性和青少年女性。研究还发现，婚姻状况、拥有的家庭卡类型以及最高学历是个体饮食多样性的统计学显著相关因素。
鉴于城市化可能对城郊成年女性等本就脆弱的人群产生负面影响，而这些女性在儿童营养方面起着关键作用，为这些人群提供支持很重要。本文建议，可以通过政府补贴城郊农民种植更多样化的作物、用普遍缺乏的微量营养素（包括维生素A、叶酸和铁）强化易于获取的食品、提供市场准入以及保持价格可承受等方式来实现。
