A garden-based nutrition intervention in the rural Dominican Republic - Impact on vitamin A rich food consumption and household food security

Garden-based nutrition interventions focus on improving food security and food diversity through the creation and augmentation of homestead food production. This study assesses the impact of a garden-based nutrition intervention on the consumption of vitamin A rich foods and household food security in rural communities of the Dominican Republic. It was hypothesized that communities participating in the intervention would experience a statistically significant increase in vitamin A rich food consumption and improved household food security compared to control communities. Validated "Vitamin A Food Frequency" and "Food Security" questionnaires were conducted by convenience sampling of households containing a pregnant woman or a child under the age of five years in two control, two intervention, and fourteen non-case/non-control communities before the initiation of a garden-based nutrition intervention. In case and control communities, interviews were conducted both before the intervention (n=69) and two years after its initiation (n=45). Pre- and post-intervention analysis revealed an increase in average weekly intake of vitamin A rich foods in both intervention and control communities (p<0.05) but the treatment effect did not reach significance. Both control and intervention communities experienced statistically insignificant improvements of food security. These results indicate that garden-based nutrition interventions may be a valuable means to enhance vitamin A food intake in rural settings in developing countries, though a larger sample size may be needed to reach statistical significance.