Estimation of household level variation in per capita calorie intake by measures of economic well-being of the household in India.

Abstract

Background and objective: Defining economic status of the household through household-based surveys remains a challenge and the measures vary across surveys and countries. This study identifies two exclusive measures of economic wellbeing of the household-wealth index and monthly per capita non-food expenditure (MPCNFE) and examines the comparative predictability of the two measures to predict the variation in per capita calorie intake across Indian households.

Methods: Design This study has a cross-sectional design and households are the unit of analysis. Setting National Sample Survey consumption expenditure rounds, 2004-2005 and 2011-2012 for India. A total of more than 100,000 households in each of the two survey rounds were included in this study. The respective household heads were interviewed during the survey.

Results: In 2004-2005, a wealth-poor household from the lowest decile consumed 1881 kcal while a consumption-poor household (lowest decile) consumed only 1690 kcal, a difference of 11.3%. A slight overall increase in average calorie intake between the two survey rounds was detected (from 2016 to 2049 kcal; 2%), but the consumption-poor households (lowest decile) still had a lower average calorie intake than the wealth-poor households (1856 kcal vs. 1958 kcal; a difference of 6%). In terms of inequality, the consumption measure of economic well-being showed higher concentration index values in calorie intake compared to the wealth measure. From the multivariate OLS estimation, it was evident that the consumption framework explained higher variability in calorie (log transformed) intake across Indian households than the wealth framework.

Conclusion: Consumption-poor households in India are more economically underprivileged and consume fewer calories than wealth-poor households. MPCNFE as a measure of economic wellbeing better predicts the household level variation in calorie intake compared to the wealth-based measure of economic wellbeing.