Savy Mathilde auteur aut IRD Martin-Prével Yves auteur aut IRD Traissac Pierre auteur aut IRD Delpeuch Francis auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf reformatted digital access Objectives: To compare dietary diversity scores measured over a 1-day and a 3-day period, and to assess their relationships with socio-economic characteristics and the nutritional status of rural African women. Design: A qualitative dietary recall allowed calculation of a dietary diversity score (DDS; number of food groups consumed out of a total of nine). Body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage (BFP) were used to assess the nutritional status of women. Setting and subjects: A representative sample of 550 mothers in north-east Burkina Faso. Results: The DDS increased from 3.5 to 4.4 when calculated from a 1-day or a 3-day recall (P < 0.0001), although for the latter the DDS was affected by memory bias. The DDS calculated from a 1-day recall was higher when a market day occurred during the recall period. Both scores were linked to the sociodemographic and economic characteristics of the women. Women in the lowest DDS tertile calculated from the I-clay recall had a mean BMI of 20.5 kg m(-2) and 17.7% of them were underweight, versus 21.6 kg m(-2) and 3.5% for those in the highest tertile (P = 0.0003 and 0.0007, respectively). The DDS calculated from the 1-day recall was also linked to mean BFP; all these links remained significant after adjustment for confounders. For the 3-day period, no such relationships were found to be significant after adjustment. Conclusion: The DDS calculated from a 1-day dietary recall was sufficient to predict the women's nutritional status. In such a context attention should be paid to market days. specialized dietary diversity score dietary assessment recall period women nutritional status Burkina Faso Africa 054 10 1 71-78 2007 1368-9800 https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010042011 10.1017/S1368980007219627 1368-9800 [F B010042011] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010042011 https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/2024-12/010042011.pdf IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2007-03-30 2025-01-22 fdi:010042011 fre