Evidence for community literacy on health outcomes from fisheries

Dietary diversity, dietary patterns, and food insecurity are directly linked to human health outcomes. However, how household fish consumption and socio-demographics impact dietary diversity, dietary patterns, and food insecurity remains under-assessed in many contexts due to paucity of supporting evidence. Therefore, we examined how household fish consumption, and socio-demographic factors, influence dietary diversity, dietary patterns, and food insecurity in coastal communities in Kenya using cross-sectional household survey data gathered from 547 participants from three villages. Using generalized linear models, we analyzed the relationship between fish consumption, sociodemographic variables, and dietary diversity, dietary patterns, and food insecurity. We found that households with higher weekly fish consumption, modern sanitation facilities, and adequate drinking water supply had higher dietary diversity. There was high severe food insecurity (33.6%) and moderate or severe food insecurity (90.7%) in the coastal villages compared to the global and national average. Households where respondents had attained post-primary education or were involved in fisheries production, food-related business, or formal employment, and where there was a higher weekly frequency of fish consumption and modern sanitation facilities, had lower odds of being food insecure. Three out of the four identified dietary patterns showed increasing odds of association with the weekly frequency of fish consumption, and varied associations with sociodemographic factors. Overall, the fishery food system contributed directly to dietary diversity, dietary patterns, and food security by providing essential food items (seafood) and indirectly to food security as a livelihood resource (employment). These findings have significant policy implications for interventions to support fishery food system transformations to achieve food and nutrition security. These interventions could include a focus on improving employability and facilitating fish availability, access, and decision-making related to healthy dietary patterns as integral components of the food system especially for those with lower socioeconomic status, and lower levels of education.