Exploring Urban Dietary Pattern in Nigerian Households: A Case for Nutrient Adequacy

Aims: To identify dietary patterns of urban households in Southwest, Nigeria and explore their links with nutrients adequacy.

Study Design: Cross sectional household-level data from two urban locations selected through a multistage random sampling procedure in southwest Nigeria was employed.

Place and Duration of Study: Urban households were sampled in South west zone of Nigeria between October to November, 2017.

Methodology: Socio/demographics were documented using a descriptive analysis. The pattern of food subgroups was determined econometrically using the factor analysis, while the test for differences was examined using Mann Whitney U.

Results: Using factor analysis, five distinct dietary patterns emerged named as vitamin A, modern, protein, roots, and cereals patterns with 50. 7% variance contribution rate. The vitamin A rich food dietary pattern explained 12.8 % of the total variance and the pitch in diet quality of this factor was explained mostly by dark leafy vegetables and fruits. The fourth and fifth factors which accounted for 9.2% and 7.5% of total variance, respectively characterised by high intakes of roots/tubers (0.69), plantain (0.57) and cereals (0.79) are food rich in dietary energy. Consumption frequency revealed that a higher intake of vitamin A foods was associated with LUA, while HUA had more intake of spices (46.3%), oil (44.5%) and beef products (41.3%). Both urban locations had a lower intake of iron rich foods (dairy, poultry and organ meat) which suggest likely risk of heme iron deficiency. Dietary energy intake in form of cereals (52.3%) was higher in HUA with tubers (14.6%) in LUA. The test of difference across the two locations revealed significant disparities in the observed dietary pattern with respect to vitamin A food, beef meat, spices and poultry at 5% level.

Conclusions: Urban disparity in dietary pattern is evidenced in this paper. However, the different dietary pattern across urban locations were associated with some nutritional outcomes. Although, both dietary patterns had healthful elements of the diets, low consumption of iron rich foods was observed. Programmes focusing on the prevention of diet-related chronic diseases in this population should balance the identified pattern of consumption with iron rich foods.