Household economic strategies and food expenditure patterns in rural Mexico: Impact on nutritional status of preschool children

This paper examines the nutritional impact of 1) household economic strategies (source of income, women's contribution to income, and subsistence production) and 2) resource allocation patterns. In a survey of 178 rural Mexican households, the following were recorded during winter and summer: 1) income by source and earner; 2) gifts and loans; 3) agricultural production and expenses; 4) household food use; 5) non‐food purchases; 6) household composition; and 7) anthropometric indices and morbidity of preschoolers. The proportion of income from migrant remittances was negatively related to wt‐for‐age. Subsistence production was positively associated with arm circumference. The proportion of the food budget allocated to milk was positively related to wt‐for‐age and ht‐for‐age, while the proportion for traditional foods was negatively related to triceps skinfold and arm circumference. Neither cash cropping nor women's income was related to nutritional status of preschoolers. These results indicate that household economic strategies, independently of income, influence nutritional status.

Key words:

• migration
• cash cropping
• women's income
• subsistence production
• resource allocation
• income
• nutritional status
• Mexico