The application of sociological research methods to food and nutrition problems on a Caribbean Island

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Abstract
A household frequency survey was carried out in 200 households in two villages and one suburban area of the island of St. Vincent over a period of two months (June to August, 1968). The survey was designed to identify ecological areas on a household basis, investigate patterns of food consumption, their socio‐economic correlates and their relationship to the incidence of malnutrition in pre‐school children (0—5 years old) as evaluated by the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute (CFNI) in the Fall of 1967. The theoretical framework of the study was centered aroung Young's theory of “structural differentiation”. The distribution of households by several variables or ecological indicators believed to tap differentiation was investigated in all three areas. The food consumption pattern was found to follow a pattern of development which fitted into a Guttman scale, therefore dividing the population into strata of different levels of differentiation. It was concluded that a classification of areas in terms of rural versus urban would be appropriate for the areas surveyed. It was shown that on an area basis, an increase in the complexity of the way of life (from rural to urban), as well as an increase in the complexity of the pattern of food intake, appeared associated with a lower incidence of malnutrition in children between 1 and 5 years of age, a lower child mortality ratio, and a shorter period of breast feeding. The highest incidence of malnutrition among infants (0—11 months old) in the CFNI survey was found in Barouallie which was considered by us as a rural area undergoing modernization. It remains unclear whether this finding was due to the selection of a small atypical sample in this area or to the changes in patterns of life associated with modernization. On a household basis, an increased complexity in the general way of life was significantly associated with an increased complexity of the food intake. Below a certain minimum level of income, education, whether formal or informal, had little influence on the complexity of the food intake of a household. When incomes were higher, changes in dietary complexity were significantly related to the educational level and occupational status of the household heads. The study also included an examination of infant care and feeding practices and attitudes concerning foods, consumed during infancy, pregnancy and lactation which are described in detail. Women with more education and those from urban households tended to use a purchased food as the first “solid food” for infants rather than the locally available starchy foods, as did the poorer and/or less educated rural households. Women whose families were on the highest steps of the food scale also tended to use purchased foods for their child and vice versa. By the end of the first semester of life, 84% of the families fed a solid or semi‐solid food to the infant. The age of the infant at the time of introduction of the first solid food did not show any relationship to any socio‐economic factor. More women in the rural areas appeared to give illness or “having to go back to work” as reasons for discontinuing nursing than in the urban area. Women in urban areas tended to have more ideas concerning foods, good or bad, in different periods of life than those in rural areas. Similarly, women from households that ranked highest on the different measures of differentiation tended to give more sophisticated reasons for explaining why certain foods were good at different times, while more traditional reasons were given by women from less differentiated households. Those giving more traditional reasons also tended to have higher child mortality ratios and vice versa. On the other hand, reasons given to explain why certain foods were bad at different times showed no relationship to those same indicators. However, single level attributes of the women appeared more strongly related to reasons given for thinking certain foods are good than did group level attributes, possibly indicating the supremacy of the opinion of the women during these special periods of life independently of how the family unit may behave.

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