Methods and Metrics for Food Security and Nutrition Outcome Indicators
Date
2022-11
Authors
Colecraf, Esi K.
Otoo, Gloria E.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
African Economic Research Consortium
Abstract
Agriculture influences food production, food is a component of diets, and diets
influence nutritional status. Agricultural policies and interventions impact nutritional
outcomes by through several pathways that influence the quantity and quality of
food consumed by individuals. Nutritional outcomes, usually assessed by physical
measurements (anthropometry), are measured at the individual level, as they relate
to what an individual consumes and the process of absorbing and utilizing nutrients
within the body (Aberman et al., 2015).
A nutrition-sensitive intervention aims to contribute to better nutritional outcomes
by addressing the underlying determinants of malnutrition such as access to safe
and nutritious foods (quantity and quality/diversity), adequate care and a healthy
and hygienic environment. Dietary quality is a key intermediary between agriculture
and nutrition. Individual dietary quality is best measured by dietary diversity, which
is a measure of nutritional adequacy. This means that agriculture interventions and
policies, designed to increase food production, only address one aspect of food
security (FS). Thus, the appropriate indicator needs to be selected to determine
the impact of agriculture on nutrition. For example, an agricultural intervention
that only addresses the availability of food, the lack of which manifests as hunger
or acute malnutrition, will most likely be assessing wasting or weight-for-height
(a nutritional status indicator) as this is the most appropriate nutritional outcome
related to increases in household food availability. However, a different nutritional
outcome indicator will be required when the interest of the intervention is to improve
diet quality. In this case, a better nutritional outcome is stunting, assessed by height for-age. For an agricultural intervention, e.g., biofortification, where improvements
made in the food system are reflected in the increased micronutrient content of
food (e.g., Vitamin A content in orange-flesh sweet potatoes), a biochemical metric
of nutritional status rather than anthropometry might be necessary. While nutrition
sensitive, consumption data alone are not a nutrition indicator because it does not
directly lead to improved nutritional outcomes.
The objective of this paper is to describe existing and current metrics for assessing
food security and nutritional status outcomes. This review looks at different metrics,
especially ones that are more relevant to developing food security measures, diet
quality and nutritional status.