AED’s A2Z : The USAID Micronutrient and Child Blindness Project Project and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) have published the Uganda Food Consumption Survey: Determining the Dietary Patterns of Ugandan Women and Children.  For decades, the lack of solid information on dietary patterns in most developing countries has been a barrier to designing and implementing comprehensive interventions to address nutritional deficiencies due to inadequate intake. The information from this survey will assist Ugandan policy makers and program designers to select and tailor interventions for specific conditions found in Uganda. The survey also responds to international interest in developing a viable model for gathering information about dietary patterns, and is suitable for global application.

 

Inadequate intake of vitamins and minerals is widespread in Uganda, at a level likely to impose enormous costs to the nation in terms of health, education, and economic development. The main micronutrient intake gaps identified across the three regions studied were for those vitamins and minerals most often supplied by foods of animal origin: vitamin A, vitamin B-12, iron, zinc, and calcium.

The study reaffirms the potential of food fortification programs and underscores that the reach of fortified food staples is strongest in urban areas. Micronutrient gaps for iron, zinc and calcium would remain widespread, even in the presence of proposed fortification programs. Targeted fortification or supplementation (daily or weekly), as well as other micronutrient interventions, should be actively introduced and tested, or expanded to supply the required nutrients to vulnerable groups, particularly those in rural areas.

The Uganda Food Consumption Survey was made possible through the support of GAIN, WFP, and the United States Agency for International Development, Bureau for Global Health, Office of Health, Infectious Disease and Nutrition.

 

The study is available at www.a2zproject.org.