A simplified measure of nutritional empowerment: Using machine learning to abbreviate the Women's Empowerment in Nutrition Index (WENI).

ABSTRACT: Measuring empowerment is both complicated and time consuming. A number of recent efforts have focused on how to better measure this complex multidimensional concept such that it is easy to implement. In this paper, we use machine learning techniques, specifically LASSO, using survey data from five Indian states to abbreviate a recently developed measure of nutritional empowerment, the Women's Empowerment in Nutrition Index (WENI) that has 33 distinct indicators. Our preferred Abridged Women's Empowerment in Nutrition Index (A-WENI) consists of 20 indicators. We validate the A-WENI via a field survey from a new context, the western Indian state of Maharashtra. We find that the 20-indicator A-WENI is both capable of reproducing well the empowerment scores and status generated by the 33-indic

SUBMITTER: Saha S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8988240 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature