Diet diversity, malnutrition and health: Evidence from Kenya

Korir, Lilian, Rizov, Marian and Ruto, Eric (2023) Diet diversity, malnutrition and health: Evidence from Kenya. Journal of Agricultural Economics, 74 (2). pp. 1-17. ISSN 1477-9552

Full content URL: http://doi.org/10.1111/1477-9552.12519

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Abstract

We investigate the effects of diet diversity on health outcomes indicated by the body-mass index (BMI) of Kenyan women in their reproductive age (15–49 years). We estimate the demand for diet diversity (which is a proxy for diet quality) and analyse its relationship with BMI by allowing the effect of diet diversity to vary along the conditional BMI distribution. Results show that diet diversity is associated with a beneficial effect on the lower and upper tails of the BMI distribution, that is, dietary diversity improves BMI for underweight individuals while, at the same time, it reduces BMI for overweight/obese individuals. Specifically, doubling the diet diversity is associated with a 14.7% increase in BMI for underweight women and a 7.0% reduction in BMI of obese women. These results support the hypothesis that diet diversity is associated with optimal BMI and, thus, better health, contributing to the policy discourse concerning the double burden of malnutrition in developing countries.

Keywords:Africa, BMI, demand, diet diversity, double burden of malnutrition, food security, health, Kenya
Subjects:L Social studies > L140 Econometrics
L Social studies > L112 Agricultural Economics
L Social studies > L430 Public Policy
L Social studies > L120 Microeconomics
L Social studies > L110 Applied Economics
Divisions:College of Science > Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology
ID Code:52672
Deposited On:12 Dec 2022 10:05

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