ABSTRACT
Food security research and its measurements are pivotal to the achievement of the sustainable development goal number 2 under the global agenda 2030, of the United Nations. South Africa as a country has also committed itself in the National Development Plan to ensure that no one goes to bed hungry by 2030. The achievement of this goal would have been failed if the type of food being considered is not a balanced diet that leads to a healthy and productive life. Against this background socio economic determinants may influence Dietary Diversity from a Food Security perspective. The objective of this paper thus is to analyse dietary diversity among Households in South Africa, from a socio economic perspective. Using the General Household Survey data based on 20908 households, household head characteristics such as age, gender, household size income and poverty status were analysed. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted and a regression model was used to analyse the socio economic variables. the results reveal that households with lower income had a lower Dietary Diversity as access to food of different groups was found to be correlated with higher levels of income and poverty status. The study contributes to the food security discourse in making recommendation as regards to ways of providing assistance that may mitigate the challenges associated with dietary diversity at the household level. It is recommended that policy makers should take note of the impact of socio economic circumstances on Dietary Diversity that may lead to negative health consequences.
KEYWORDS
Dietary Diversity, Households, Determinants, Characteristics, GHS