Bivariate associations have been found between dietary diversity and height for age in 9 of the 11 countries which had held DHSs (Arimond and Ruel, 2004). Dietary diversity remained significant as a main effect in seven countries in multivariate models, and interacted significantly with other factors (e.g., child age, breast-feeding status, urban/ rural location) in 3 of the 4 remaining countries. Thus, dietary diversity was significantly associated with height for age, either as a main effect or in an interaction, in all but one of the countries analyzed. These findings suggest that there is an association between child dietary diversity and nutritional status that is independent of socioeconomic factors (Arimond and Ruel, 2004).

Interventions to diversify diets by small-animal production, home gardening, livestock rearing, and dietary modifications are potentially promising and culturally relevant, but in general, have only been implemented at a small scale, and have not been adequately assessed (Masset et al, 2011). Dietary modification techniques (e.g. germination, fermentation, and malting), have been shown in small studies to improve children’s intakes of micronutrients and their micronutrient status. Although some promising multidisciplinary nutrition interventions have been implemented such as biofortification by conventional crop breeding or genetic engineering, dietary diversification strategies have not been proven to affect nutritional status or micronutrient indicators on a large scale.