Prevalence of Household Dietary Diversity and Associated Factors among Sundarbans Mangrove Forest Resource-dependent Communities in Southwestern Coastal Bangladesh

Abstract

Household dietary diversity (HDD) is essential for adequate intake of diversified nutrients for optimal health of the individuals. However, it is difficult for marginalized coastal people to ensure dietary diversity, especially among the Sundarbans mangrove forest resource-dependent communities (SMFRDCs). This cross-sectional survey was conducted in three southwestern coastal districts of Bangladesh on SMFRDCs to assess their HDD using the sustainable livemood approach (SLA). Data were collected randomly from 782 SMFRDCs and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics v27 for Windows. Findings suggest that 24.6% (95% CI: 21.6%-27.7%) households of SMFRDCs have low HDD, followed by 60.7% (95% CI: 57.3%-64.1%) with moderate and only 14.7% (95% CI: 12.4%-17.3%) with high HDD. Bivariate analysis (Pearson's Chi-square [x2]) indicates that household's vulnerabilities, including social (p = 0.017) economic (p = 0.002) physical (p < 0.001) institutional (p < 0.001), attitudinal (p < 0.001) and environmental (p < 0.001) , were inversely associated with HDD. In contrast, livelihood capitals, such as human ( p < 0.001 , social (p < 0.001) natural ( p < 0 ; physical (p < 0.001) , financial (p < 0.001) , and political (p < 0.001) , were positively associated with HDD of SMFRDCs. Socio-demographic and household resources were also significantly associated with the HDD of SMFRDCs. To achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs), i.e., 'no poverty. 'zeroer and 'good health and wellbeing,' of the marginalized SMFRDCs, region-specific programs shou implemented by the government, together with its development partners, assuring better food and nutritional diversity among climate-induced vulnerable populations in Bangladesh.