Understanding Dietary Intake Behavior of Women in India: A Latent Class Approach

A recent development of the Indian National Family Health Survey is the collection of food consumption data from ever-married women aged 15-49 years. This study investigates the underlying complex dietary intake patterns among women using latent class models and examines its association with selected characteristics. Based on different combination of food intake frequency, a five component latent class solution was obtained which disaggregated the sample (N=90,180) into different groups representing very high mixed diet (26%), high and moderate (21% each), low and very low mixed diet (16% each). Demographic, spatial, socioeconomic and cultural dimensions of diet mixing behavior are further explored