Standard Minimum Dietary Diversity Indicators for Women or Infants and Young Children Are Good Predictors of Adequate Micronutrient Intakes in 24-59-Month-Old Children and Their Nonpregnant Nonbreastfeeding Mothers in Rural Burkina Faso

Background: Simple proxy indicators are needed to assess and monitor micronutrient intake adequacy of vulnerable populations. Standard dichotomous indicators exist for nonpregnant women of reproductive age and 6-23-mo-old children in low-income countries, but not for 24-59-mo-old children or pregnant or breastfeeding women.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the performance of 2 standard food group scores (FGSs) and related dichotomous indicators to predict micronutrient adequacy of the diet of rural Burkinabe 24-59-mo-old children and women of reproductive age by physiological status.

Methods: A 24-h recall survey was conducted at dry season among 1066 pairs of children and caregivers. Micronutrient adequacy was evaluated by the mean probability of adequacy (MPA) of intake over 11 micronutrients. Proxy indicators were FGS-10 [10 food groups based on the FAO/FHI360 minimum dietary diversity for women (MDD-W) guidelines] and related MDD-W (FGS-10 ≥5); and FGS-7 [7 groups based on the WHO infant and young child (IYC) feeding MDD guidelines] and related MDD-IYC (FGS-7 ≥4).

Results: FGS-10 and FGS-7 were similar across children and women (∼3 groups). FGS-10 performed better than FGS-7 to predict MPA in children (Spearman rank correlation = 0.59 compared with 0.50) and women of all 3 physiological statuses (Spearman rank correlation = 0.53-0.55 compared with 0.42-0.52). MDD-W and MDD-IYC performed well in predicting MPA >0.75 in children and MPA >0.6 in nonpregnant nonbreastfeeding (NPNB) women, but a 4-group cutoff for FGS-10 allowed a better balance between sensitivity, specificity, and proportion of correct classification. MPA levels for pregnant and breastfeeding women were too low to assess best cutoff points.

Conclusions: MDD-IYC or an adapted MDD-W (FGS-10 ≥4 instead of FGS-10 ≥5) can be extended to 24-59-mo-old children and NPNB women in similar-diet settings. The inadequacy of micronutrient intakes in pregnant and breastfeeding women warrants urgent action. Micronutrient adequacy predictors should be validated in populations where a higher proportion of these women do meet dietary requirements.