Assessing nutrient inadequacies and influence of socio-economic characteristics on diet quality of the Mbororo minority women in Northwest Cameroon
ISSN: 0034-6659
Article publication date: 28 September 2020
Issue publication date: 2 June 2021
Abstract
Purpose
Limited data are available in facilitating nutritional interventions in developing countries. The objective of this study is to assess the mean dietary diversity score (DDS)of Mbororo minority women in the Northwest region of Cameroon.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used the random sampling technique within the Mbororo minority communities (Adorates). A questionnaire on dietary diversity, including 461 Mbororo women, provided information on food consumed using the 24-h dietary recall method.
Findings
Various socio-cultural and economic characteristics of the Mbororo women affected the nutrient level of their diet. Moreover, starchy staples, vitamin-A rich vegetables and palm oil and milk and milk products were consumed by more than half of the Mbororo community. Family herd size showed a positive influence on the dietary habit of the Mbororo population. The mean DDS significantly increased (p = 0.001), as herd size increased from below 50 (3.9 ± 1.1) to above 100 (4.8 ± 1.2).
Practical implications
Most of the diet consumed by the Mbororo women were low in iron, making them susceptible to nutrition anemia. The diet of the Aku women was more deficient in micronutrients than their Jaafun counterpart. These results indicate suitable areas of intervention for any nutrition program that targets the Mbororo minority group of Northwest Cameron.
Social implications
DDS can be used in assessing and classifying the population in rural communities according to the deficiencies in micronutrients of their diet.
Originality/value
The use of DDS to assess the nutrient quality of diets is frequently used to evaluate the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies but has never been applied to Mbororo minority women.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This publication is an output of a scholarship from the Food Security Center of the University of Hohenheim, with funds provided by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) program “Exceed”.
Declaration of interest statement: There is no conflict of interest content, and or data used for this paper.
Citation
Ebile, P.A., Ndah, H.T. and Wünsche, J.N. (2021), "Assessing nutrient inadequacies and influence of socio-economic characteristics on diet quality of the Mbororo minority women in Northwest Cameroon", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 51 No. 4, pp. 738-748. https://doi.org/10.1108/NFS-07-2020-0265
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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