Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS)

What: The HDDS is a population-level indicator that is used as a proxy measure of household food access. HDDS assesses a household's economic access to food (i.e. its ability to produce, purchase or otherwise secure food for consumption by all household members). It does not provide data on the nutritional quality of a person's diet. The HDDS can be used in conjunction with other indicators of food security status (e.g. Household Food Insecurity Access Scale HFIAS) to understand household access to certain food groups. The components of the indicator can also be used to examine dietary patterns (e.g., what percentage of households consume any type of animal source foods?). Why: The household dietary diversity score (HDDS) reflects the economic ability of a household to access a variety of foods. A more diversified diet is likely to also be of adequate quality and energy. Higher dietary diversity is associated with higher socio-economic status and household food security.

When:

1. Assessment of the food security situation in rural, agriculture-based and urban communities

2. Monitoring of food security/nutrition programs or agricultural interventions such as crop and livelihood diversification

Collect the following data by conducting interviews with the members of a representative sample of persons responsible for food preparation for the household on the previous day:

1) Check whether yesterday was a special day (religious festival or celebration) when unusually varied or limited diet was eaten - if so, do not proceed with collecting dietary data as it is likely that they will not reflect a typical diet.

2) List all meals and their ingredients which the household ate in the previous day in the Recording Meals Form (see link below).

3) Double check the meals' composition (e.g. porridge with or without milk).

4) Check for any snacks (including fruits) which were not mentioned.

5) Only then record in the questionnaire which food groups were eaten. Ask the respondent regarding eaten foods from groups that were not mentioned (for example: "Did your household members yesterday eat any eggs?")

6) Count the number of food groups consumed by the interviewed household's members, creating their Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS).

7) Calculate the indicator's value by summing up the scores of all the assessed households and dividing the result by the total number of assessed households.

8) In analysis of HDDS households can be grouped into 3, using the following cutoff points: 0-3 (severely food insecure), 4-5 (moderately food insecure) and 6-12 (food secure / mildly food insecure).

Disaggregate the data by wealth.

1) A household includes all persons living under the same roof who share meals.

2) As opposed to IDDS, which uses 7 or 9 food groups, HDDS works with 12 food groups (for details, see FAO's guidelines below).

3) HDDS is prone to seasonal differences. Do your best to collect baseline and endline data at the same time of a year; otherwise it is very likely that they will not be comparable. Do not collect data during fasting periods, such as pre-Easter time or Ramadan.

4) Do not include foods that were purchased and eaten outside the home. These foods are excluded because the respondent may not know the foods which other household members purchased and ate outside the home. You can include foods that were 1) prepared in the home and consumed in the home or outside the home; or 2) purchased or gathered outside and consumed in the home. Due to this reason, HDDS indicator should not be used in contexts where eating outside the home is very common.

5) When training the data collectors, practice extensively which meals belong to which food group and pay specific attention to local food varieties (allocate at least 3 hours full of examples and exercises). For example, while pumpkin flesh belongs to Vitamin A Rich Foods, pumpkin leaves belong to Dark Green Leafy Vegetables (see more examples in the FAO Guidelines below). If your questionnaire includes examples of different foods per each group, adjust them to the local context.

6) Do not record foods in quantities lower than one tea spoon (for example, a small amount of fish powder added for flavouring). These are considered as condiments.

For more tips, read FAO's Guidance on HDDS (see below).