Use of diet-related coping strategies by households with preschoolers in western province during the current financial crisis in Sri Lanka

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.