Awareness of Appropriate Diet

Indicator Phrasing

number of target group members aware of the promoted dietary practices

Indicator Phrasing

INDICATOR PHRASING: number of target group members aware of the promoted dietary practices

What is its purpose?

This is a composite indicator assessing the extent to which the target group members are aware of a minimum number of the promoted dietary practices, such as those related to breastfeeding, complementary feeding and diet during pregnancy.

How to Collect and Analyse the Required Data

Determine the indicator's value by using the following methodology:

 

1) List a limited number (4 to 6) of the most important dietary practices that the project promoted / will promote among the target group members.

 

2) Decide how many of the promoted dietary practices a respondent needs to know to be considered as “aware of the promoted dietary practices” – for example, at least 4 out of 6 practices (ensure that the baseline and endline surveys use the same benchmark – e.g. always 4 out of 6 practices).

 

3) Conduct individual interviews with a representative sample of the target group members, asking simple questions assessing whether the respondent is aware of the dietary practices the project promotes. Examples of such questions are:

Q1: During pregnancy, should women eat less, more or the same amount of food as before?

Q2: In your opinion, should healthy 4 months old babies receive only breastmilk or also some other fluids or foods?

Q3: …

The questions must be defined in a neutral way, either being open-ended (e.g. “How much food should pregnant women eat compared to when they are not pregnant?”) or letting women choose from at least two neutrally sounding options (see examples above). Avoid leading questions, such as “Should babies younger than 6 months receive only breastmilk?”

  

4) Count the number of respondents who were aware of at least the minimum number of the promoted dietary practices (e.g., at least 4 out 6 practices).

 

5) To calculate the indicator's value:

- divide the number of respondents aware of at least the minimum number of the promoted dietary practices by the total number of respondents

- multiply the resulting number by 100 to convert it to a percentage

- multiply the percentage by the total number of the target group members

- the resulting number is the “number of target group members aware of the promoted dietary practices”

 

See example: 175 respondents aware of at least the minimum number of the promoted dietary practices divided by a total of 350 interviewed respondents equals 0.5. This multiplied by 100 equals 50%. If the total number of the target group members is 2,000, then 50% out of 2,000 people equals to 1,000 target group members being aware of the promoted dietary practices.

Disaggregate by

Disaggregate the data by age group and by whether the respondent has / had at least one child or not.

This guidance was prepared by Tearfund from People in Need’s IndiKit guidance ©

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