AUTHOR=Fongar Andrea , Linderhof Vincent , Ekesa Beatrice , Dijkxhoorn Youri , Nalweyiso Martha Dorcas 

TITLE=Impact of healthy food and diet information on household food security: A randomized control trial in Kampala, Uganda

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

VOLUME=Volume 6 - 2022

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2022.1063331

DOI=10.3389/fsufs.2022.1063331

ISSN=2571-581X

ABSTRACT=Healthy diets are unaffordable for almost 3.1 billion people worldwide, and in 2018 already 43% of the African population were urban dwellers. Our food systems are changing rapidly, coupled with rising dietary aspirations. What are healthy diets and how can healthy diets be reached and increased in an urban context was the question of project NOURICITY. Looking into different information channels to deliver information on healthy diets in a low-income area in urban Kampala, Uganda. Two packages of interventions were developed based on information on the selected focus group discussions with parish representatives. The first package consisted of a flyer including graphic information on healthy diets and three food groups (treatment group 1). The second included the same flyer plus interactive voice responses(IVR)  as a phone call to deliver the flyer information in a different format (treatment group 2). A selected for the study, targeting 450 randomly selected households, which were randomly assigned into three groups (control, treatment groups 1 and 2). Respondents from Kanyanya (a low-income parish of Kampala city, were randomly selected. They were visited twice in March as well as innd December of the year 2021, while the intervention was rolled out in the period between September and to November 2021. Healthy diets are measured using the household dietary diversity score, and food variety score based on a 7-day food consumption recall, while dietary quality is measured for a sub-sample of women and the minimum dietary diversity for women. Results indicate statistically significant changes per group at household food consumption in level between March compared to and December 2021. However, the difference-in-difference results between the control and the treatment groups did not display any significant difference at the household level. However, increased dairy and meat consumption in the treatment groups was observed. Over 90% of the households in treatment group 2 listened to any type of IVR message. Although no significant treatment effects were found, almost all households receiving intervention package 2 mentioned that the IVR calls were easy to follow, while almost 80% indicated sharing the information with their neighbors and 92% enjoyed receiving the message.