Publication:

Assessing the effect of women’s empowerment on their dietary intake: a cross-sectional study

Background Women empowerment is an important strategy to reduce maternal and child undernutrition, which continues to be a major health burden in low- and middle-income countries. The present study aimed to assess the effect of women empowerment on their dietary intake in the two selected blocks of Sultanpuri urban slums, West Delhi.

Methods The baseline was conducted using a cross-sectional research method with girls and women (15-35 years). The research was conducted through a predesigned, pretested, semi-structured questionnaire to capture the information on socio-demographic profiles along with knowledge on social skills, self-esteem, and decision-making. The data were collected on the consumption of food groups in the last 24 hours from 2402 girls and women. We employed unadjusted and adjusted step-wise regression models to assess the effect of domains of women empowerment on dietary intake.

Results The median (interquartile range) age of the women was 27 (22-31) years. We found a 0.17-point increase in the dietary diversity score per one-unit increase in the self-esteem score of the women. Similarly, there was a 0.06-unit increase in the dietary diversity score per one-unit increase in the social skills score of the women. The association remained statistically significant even after adjustments for co-variates like age, education status, and socio-economic status.

Conclusions The present study recommends that focusing on women's empowerment dimensions, particularly social skills, self-esteem, and decision-making power, can be an effective strategy for improving dietary intake among women.