Computing levels of nutrient inadequacy from household consumption and expenditure surveys: A case study

This paper presents an approach to estimate the between-subject variability in nutrient intake (through the coefficient of variation [CV]) and a method to estimate the prevalence of nutrient inadequacy (PoNI) (for eight micronutrients) using household consumption and expenditure survey (HCES) data. Prevalence values are compared to individual-level estimates derived using the National-Cancer-Institute method. Data come from the 2015 Bangladesh Integrated-Household-Survey, which conducted a household-level 7-day recall (7DR) and two rounds of individual-level 24-hour recall (24HR), filled by one respondent on behalf of all members, for the same rural households. The PoNI values based on 7DR are lower than those calculated from 24HR data, due to the larger average intake estimates from 7DR data. After controlling for differences in average intake estimates and adjusting household-level data for random measurement errors, the PoNI values from 7DR and 24HR data are remarkably close. This highlights the potential use of HCES data (conducted according to international agreed standards) for estimating the level of between-subject variability in usual nutrient intake in a population. The CVs from HCES could be used to compute the PoNI using average intake estimates from individual-level data; and the inadequacy of global nutrient supply using Supply and Utilization Accounts data.