Abstract:
Due to the current financial crisis in Sri Lanka, the dietary behaviours of households have been
drastically changed, which has badly impacted the nutritional status of preschoolers too. A cross sectional study was conducted among households with at least one preschooler residing in Western
Province, Sri Lanka. A convenient sample of parents or primary caretakers of preschoolers (n=255)
was recruited from randomly selected 9 preschools from Kaduwela area. A self-administered
questionnaire and a single 24-hour recall were used to collect data. The majority of the participants
were females (98.9%), middle-aged adults (63.5%), belonging to Sinhalese ethnicity (97.7%) and
housewives (65.7%) who have completed 13 years of school education (41%). Most households had
a monthly income of less than 30000 LKR (40.7%). The percentage of households with food security
was 19.66% whereas; mild food insecurity, moderate food insecurity and severe food insecurity
were 33.06%, 37.65% and 9.63%, respectively. The mean Coping Strategy Index (CSI) was 13.9±22.9.
Children scored a mean Dietary Diversity Score (DDS) of 4.4±1.2. Diet-related coping strategies
mostly followed were; relying on less preferred and less expensive food (70%), reducing the portion
size of meals (43%) and restricting the consumption of adults for small children to eat (33%).
Primary caretakers’ age, education level and household income showed a significant effect on
household food insecurity (p < 0.05). Compared to the households with younger parents (≤30 years),
households with middle-aged parents (>30 years) were 0.3 times less likely to be food insecure. The
households that had a monthly income of below 30,000 LKR were 2.5 times more likely to experience
food insecurity than the households that had a monthly income between 30,000 LKR and 60,000
LKR. In conclusion, the majority of households is food insecure and follows various diet-related
coping strategies but provide a moderately diverse diet to their young members in the household.
Further studies are required to examine the situation in other rural and estate areas in Sri Lanka to
understand the complete situation.
