Dietary Diversity in Rural Households: The Case of Indigenous Communities in Sierra Tarahumara, Mexico

Rural populations have a bigger risk of suffering food and nutrition insecurity, mainly, where the indigenous population prevails. The purpose of this research was to analyse the dietary diversity through the Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) in the indigenous communities of Sierra Tarahumara, State of Chihuahua, Mexico. The representative sample is formed of 123 households and it took place in February and March 2015. The households’ characteristics were analysed, followed by a discriminant analysis (DA) by steps inclusion to determine which variables determine best the levels of the dietary diversity. The results show that the average HDDS of food consumption was of 6.89 foods. From the twelve food groups defined in this research, most of the respondents consume less than eight food groups (50.41%). The food groups most consumed by the sample of the study were the cereals (100%); legumes or nuts (96.7%); eggs (78.9%); sugar/honey (78%); oils/fats (77.2%). The DA determined that the variables that best explained the dietary diversity were food spending per capita, casual employment, the Prospera program and the marital status of the head of household. The level of low dietary diversity was the best to classify the DA. This research leads us to observe a consumption pattern of a diet based on carbohydrates that can be related to the nutrient deficiency to indicate family malnutrition. This tool can be used as diagnosis for the analysis of interventions on food and nutritional security.