Food Diversity
Food Diversity and Quality Mobile Assessment Tools
For the first part of our project, we have created two mobile apps: The Diet DQ Tracker and The Diet Photo Data app. While both apps collect nutrition data, the Diet DQ Tracker collects data by providing users with various list-based food diversity and quality indicators and calculates a user’s nutrition based on the meal and food indicator they selected which subsequently, provides them with information about the diversity and/or quality of their diet.
The Diet Photo Data app on the other hand, collects photographic data of meals and dishes by allowing users to take a picture of their food and input ingredients thus, providing information about their nutrition. Ultimately, the goal is to create a food photo databank which will in turn help us generate a food photo recognition algorithm that will provide respondents with their nutrition information by automatically comparing a simple photo of the user’s food with values for the food diversity and quality indicators or metrics. This approach, although promising and exciting is still under development.
The Diet Photo Data app in essence, supports the Diet DQ Tracker as not all food, especially those local in rural and remote areas of the globe, are available on the national food databases used in the Diet DQ Tracker. Therefore, by using the Diet Food Photo Data app we plan to expand our food database in the Diet DQ Tracker to include foods common in rural and/or remote parts of the world which will eventually allow users to select their local foods from the expanded Diet DQ Tracker food database. The Diet Photo Data app will hopefully help fill gaps present in food composition tables. Ultimately, we hope to merge the two apps into one single app where the food recognition algorithm is incorporated within the Diet DQ Tracker.
Current food diversity and quality indicators like the Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women of Reproductive Age (MDD-W) or the Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) are conducted traditionally using paper and pen. To reduce the drudgery of conducting these indicators as well as substantially reducing the cost of these surveys, this project is developing these food diversity indicators into the respondent-friendly Diet DQ Tracker mobile app.
Our approach enhances the collection of food diet diversity and quality indicators because:
- It is self-administered
- It saves time
- It saves money
- Makes it easier to survey multiple test subjects and conduct longitudinal nutritional-sensitive studies
- It provides better accuracy as data is collected immediately avoiding issues with recall bias from memory
- Combats gaps from recall differences in countries with fasting days for example
The list-based diet diversity and quality indicators provided in the Diet DQ Tracker include:
- Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women of Reproductive Age (MDD-W)
- Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS)
- Infant and Young Child Feeding Minimum Diet Diversity (IYCF-MDD)
- Score of Nutritional Adequacy of Individual Foods and Score of Nutrients to be Limited (SAIN-LIM)
In addition, part of the project involves the creation of a nutrition survey using the Food Consumption Score (FCS) indicator which will also allow for the collection of dietary data as well as respondent information from users. This survey could be used on its own however, ideally, both the nutrition survey and Diet DQ Tracker will be evaluated against each other when both methods are used to collect data simultaneously from respondents.
Nutrimetrics Project: The five food diversity and quality indicators
The Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women of Reproductive Age (MDD-W) is a widely used food group diversity indicator that reflects micronutrient adequacy in women aged (15-49). As a dichotomous indicator, MDD-W results demonstrate the proportion of women of reproductive age (WRA) who have consumed at least five out of ten food groups the previous day or night.
The Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) is designed to reflect a household’s access to a variety of foods by providing a qualitative measure of household food consumption. HDDS is therefore a proxy measure of the socio-economic level of the household.
Developed by World Food Programme (WFP) in 1996, the Food Consumption Score (FCS) aggregates household-level data on the diversity and frequency of food groups consumed over the previous seven days. This sum is then weighed according to the relative nutritional value of the consumed food groups.
The Infant and Young Child Feeding Minimum Dietary Diversity (IYCF-MDD) tells us the proportion of children 6-23 months of age who receive a minimum acceptable diet. For the IYCF-MDD to be met, a child aged 6-23 months must consume at least 5 out of the 8 food groups in the last 24 hours.
The SAIN-LIM system unlike the previous indicators, focuses on the overall nutrient quality of the food an individual consumes. The SAIN and LIM scores for any given food reflect the nutrient density and energy of that foodstuff respectively. The SAIN is the mean percentages of recommended dietary intakes for a defined number of qualifying nutrients. LIM on the other hand, is the mean of percentages of maximum recommended intakes for a defined number of disqualifying nutrients.
