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© 2022 by the authors; licensee Asian Online Journal Publishing Group 
 

Agriculture and Food Sciences Research 
Vol. 9, No. 1, 32-38, 2022 

ISSN(E) 2411-6653/ ISSN(P) 2518-0193 
DOI: 10.20448/aesr.v9i1.3862 

© 2022 by the authors; licensee Asian Online Journal Publishing Group 

 
 

 
 
 
We are how much we Eat: Nutrient-Specific Versus Calorie-Based Adult-Equivalent 
Scales 

 
Mohammad Ali1   

Kira M. Villa2   

  
( Corresponding Author)  

1Centenary College of Louisiana, United States. 
Email: mali@centenary.edu Tel: (+1)505-720-9017 
2University of New Mexico, United States. 
Email: kmvilla@unm.edu Tel: (+1)505-277-5304 

 
Abstract 

The accurate conversion of household-level food availability into individual-level nutrient 
availability depends on which adult-equivalent scale is employed. The purpose of this paper is to 
come up with a set of adult-equivalent scales based on the specific daily intake requirement for 
macro- and micronutrients. Using t-tests on household-level data from Nepal, we also attempt to 
find whether on average there are differences between the individual-level nutrient availability 
estimates when they are calculated through nutrient-specific versus calorie-based, per capita, or 
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) adult-equivalent scales. The 
results suggest that on average there are significant differences between the individual-level 
nutrient availability estimates depending on which adult-equivalent scale is used. Finally, we find 
that nutrient-income elasticities calculated through different adult-equivalent scales are statistically 
different from each other. Thus, the nutrient-specific adult-equivalent scales derived in this paper 
have the potential to reduce measurement error in future studies. 

 
Keywords: Nutrient availability, Adult-equivalent scales, Nepal, Micronutrients, Nutrient-income elasticities, Food expenditures. 

 
Citation | Mohammad Ali; Kira M. Villa (2022). We are how much 
we Eat: Nutrient-Specific Versus Calorie-Based Adult-Equivalent 
Scales. Agriculture and Food Sciences Research, 9(1): 32-38. 
History:  
Received: 10 February 2022 
Revised: 15 March 2022 
Accepted: 30 March 2022 
Published: 19 April 2022 
Licensed: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons 

Attribution 4.0 License  
Publisher:  Asian Online Journal Publishing Group 
 

Funding: This study received no specific financial support. 
Authors’ Contributions: Both authors contributed equally to the conception 
and design of the study. 
Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflict of 
interest. 
Transparency: The authors confirm that the manuscript is an honest, accurate, 
and transparent account of the study; that no vital features of the study have 
been omitted; and that any discrepancies from the study as planned have been 
explained. 
Ethical: This study followed all ethical practices during writing. 

 

 

Contents 
1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 33 
2. Methods ............................................................................................................................................................................................. 33 
3. Results ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 35 
4. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 37 
References .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 37 
 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

mailto:mali@centenary.edu
mailto:kmvilla@unm.edu
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://www.doi.org/10.20448/aesr.v9i1.3862
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7477-2674
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1540-2892


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Contribution of this paper to the literature 
Our contribution in this research is to calculate nutrient-specific adult-equivalent scales that will 
enable researchers to more accurately translate food availability data from household surveys to 
macro- and micronutrient availabilities per adult male equivalent. Using these nutrient-specific 
adult-equivalent scales will potentially reduce measurement error in future studies. 

 
1. Introduction 

Household-level surveys often contain food modules that collect information on household food availability (i.e., 
the total amount of food available to a household at a given time) in the form of food expenditures [1]. Although not 
as precise as food frequency questionnaires (FFQs), household-level food expenditure modules are commonly 
employed because they are cheaper and less timely to collect than individual food consumption data [2, 3]. Food 
expenditure can then be used to estimate individual food/nutrient availability, where individual-level availability is 
calculated as the total amount of food/nutrients available to the household divided by the number of household 
members [4-6]. 

However, per capita food/nutrient availability is not comparable across households with different demographic 
compositions as the cost of an optimal consumption basket for an individual household member depends on that 
member’s age and sex. Consequently, many use some version of a cost-based adult equivalency scale [7].  Commonly 
used cost-based equivalence scales, such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 
scale [8] are generally developed for overall household consumption or expenditure (not just household nutrient 
availability). They also typically assume the existence of economies of scale (e.g., buying in bulk can be cheaper per 
unit than buying in small amounts). For example, the OECD scale assumes that additional adults are equivalent to 
0.5 of the first adult. While this is a reasonable assumption for cost-based measures and analysis, economies of scale 
do not exist for nutrient availability. Moving from a one adult to a two adult household (each with the same nutrient 
requirements) requires that the household’s nutrient availability must double (not increase by 0.5). For these reasons, 
cost-based adult equivalency scales are generally not appropriate tools for measuring nutrient availability in a 
household. 

While cost-based adult equivalency scales are the most common, some instead employ nutrition-based 
equivalency scales. However, the only nutrition-based adult-equivalent scales, that we are aware of e.g. Claro, et al. 
[9] are based on the calorie requirements of different age groups and sex. Calorie-based adult-equivalent scales are 
an improvement from per capita measures and cost-based equivalency scales and are perfect for calculating 
individual-level calorie availability However, they still can lead to unreliable estimates of the availability for other 
nutrients such as macro- (fats, carbohydrates, and proteins) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). This gap is 
notable as micronutrient deficiency is currently a bigger problem than calorie deficiency in most developing countries 
[10]. Therefore, employing a measure using only caloric conversion rates may miss an important dimension of 
nutrient availability. Any adult-equivalent scale based on caloric requirements by sex and age will not correctly 
calculate the individual-level micronutrient availability per adult equivalent within a household. Therefore, having 
accurate conversion factors for other vital nutrients is important to better understand disparities in nutrient 
availability and food security in developing countries and is necessary for comparing nutrient availability across 
households with different compositions and size [11, 12].  

In this paper, we propose nutrient-specific adult-equivalent scale using the daily nutrient intake guidelines 
provided by the Institute of Medicine [13]. This scale provides a more accurate representation of individual-level 
nutrient availability within a household relative to the nutrient needs of that household. We also calculate the 
magnitude of the difference in estimated daily nutrient availabilities when using our nutrient-specific scale compared 
to calorie-based, per capita, and OECD adult equivalent scales with data from the third round of the Nepal Living 
Standards Survey (NLSS III). Thus, our contribution is two-fold. First, the calculation of nutrient-specific adult-
equivalent scales will enable researchers to accurately translate food availability data from household surveys to 
macro- and micronutrient availabilities per adult male equivalent. Second, this paper also provides an estimate of the 
difference in the calculation of daily individual-level nutrient availabilities if the commonly used calorie-based, per 
capita, and OECD adult equivalent scales are used instead of those that are nutrient-specific. 

We find that on average there are significant differences in the individual-level daily nutrient availability 
estimates when they are calculated using the nutrient-specific adult-equivalent scale proposed in this paper compared 
to the other commonly used (calorie-based, per capita, and OECD) adult equivalent scales. Importantly, we find that 
the average difference is also not just in one direction, as in the use of calorie-based, per capita, and OECD adult 
equivalent scales over- or under-calculates the mean nutrient availability depending on each specific nutrient. Thus, 
our study provides a much more accurate benchmark for future studies using household survey data to calculate 
individual-level nutrient availability estimates. 
 

2. Methods 
2.1. Data 

To empirically explore variation in measured nutrient availability based on different adult equivalency scales, we 
use data from NLSS III collected in 2010-2011. NLSS III consists of a total of 5,988 household-level observations 
but missing observations reduces our sample to 4,425 households. NLSS III includes a food module containing 
information on weekly household food availability based on foods obtained through home production, market 
purchases, and in-kind receipts. We use this food availability data to calculate daily household-level nutrient 
availability using the reference tables provided by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National 
Nutrient Database for Standard Reference [14]. The nutrients for which we calculate the daily household nutrient 
availability are proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins A, C, B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B6, B9 (folic acid), 
B12, calcium, iron, and zinc. We select these macro- and micronutrients, as they are important protective and growth 
nutrients needed to maintain healthy bodily functions such as bone growth and brain activity [15].  

After calculating the daily household-level nutrient availability, we convert it into four measures of average 
individual-level availability for each household using a calorie-based scale (proposed by Claro, et al. [9]) a per capita 



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approach, the OECD scale, and the nutrient-specific scale we propose in this paper. Using these, we construct three 
variables equal to the difference between individual-level daily nutrient availability constructed with our nutrient-
specific adult-equivalent scale and that based on the calorie-based, per capita, and OECD adult-equivalent scales 
respectively. Further explanation of how these difference variables are used is provided in the next sections of this 
paper. 
 

2.2. Nutrient-Specific Adult-Equivalent Scales 
We construct nutrient-specific male adult equivalent scales using the daily nutrient intake guidelines provided 

by the Institute of Medicine [13]1. These guidelines provide the daily intake recommendations for all the macro- 
and micronutrients analyzed in this paper, accounting for age and sex differences. Based on the age-specific guidelines 
proposed by Institute of Medicine [13] we construct our scale for the following age groups: 1-3, 4-8, 9-13, 14-18, 
19-30, 31-50, and over 50 years of age. For each age group, other than the 1-3 year-olds, the daily intake 
recommendations also differ by sex.  

To estimate the nutrient-specific adult-equivalent scales, we use the daily nutrient recommendation for males in 
the 19-30 age group for each nutrient as the reference value to which the daily recommendation for all other age and 
sex groups is compared—making our scale a measure of nutrient availability per adult male equivalent in the 
household. Accordingly, the adult-equivalent conversions for each nutrient were computed by dividing the daily 
recommendation for each age and sex group with the reference value for that specific nutrient. Since, according to 
the Institute of Medicine’s guidelines, the vitamin D and carbohydrates recommendations do not change with age or 
sex, we do not include these nutrients in Table 1 as their conversion scale are equal to one for all categories. 

Table 1 details the nutrient-specific adult equivalent scales calculated using the above methodology. A close look 
at Table 1 suggests that the male adult equivalent conversion scales for every sex and age group vary considerably 
across the different nutrients. This implies that even the use of a calorie-based adult-equivalent scale can over- or 
underestimate nutrient availability per male adult equivalent depending on the nutrient.  Table 2 provides the calorie-
based and OECD adult-equivalent scales for different ages. Because a per-capita measure simply divides household-
level nutrient availability by household size, the conversion scale under this approach is simply one for all 
demographic categories. It is important to keep in mind that these scales do not differentiate between different macro- 
and micronutrients. 
 

Table 1. Nutrient-specific adult-equivalent scales. 

Ages (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) 

Proteins A C B1 B2 B3 B6 B9 B12 Calcium Iron Zinc 

Child (1-3) 0.23 0.33 0.17 0.42 0.38 0.375 0.38 0.375 0.375 0.7 0.875 0.27 
Female (4-8) 0.34 0.44 0.28 0.5 0.46 0.5 0.46 0.5 0.5 1 1.25 0.45 
Male (4-8) 0.34 0.44 0.28 0.5 0.46 0.5 0.46 0.5 0.5 1 1.25 0.45 
Female (9-13) 0.61 0.67 0.5 0.75 0.69 0.75 0.77 0.75 0.75 1.3 1 0.73 
Male (9-13) 0.61 0.67 0.5 0.75 0.69 0.75 0.77 0.75 0.75 1.3 1 0.73 
Female (14-18) 0.82 0.78 0.72 0.83 0.77 0.875 0.92 1 1 1.3 1.875 0.82 
Male (14-18) 0.93 1 0.83 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.3 1.375 1 
Female (19-30) 0.82 0.78 0.78 0.92 0.85 0.875 1 1 1 1 2.25 0.73 
Male (19-30) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 
Female (31-50) 0.82 0.78 0.78 0.92 0.85 0.875 1 1 1 1 2.25 0.73 
Male (31-50) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 
Female (>50) 0.82 0.78 0.78 0.92 0.85 0.875 1.15 1 1 1.2 1 0.73 
Male (>50) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1.31 1 1 1 1 1 

 
Table 2. Calorie-based and OECD adult-equivalent scales. 

Ages (1)  
Ages 

(2) 

Calorie-Based OECD 

Infants (0-1) 0.29 Household Head 1 
Child (1-3) 0.51 Child (0-3) 0.3 
Child (4-6) 0.71 Child (4-6) 0.3 
Child (7-10) 0.78 Child (7-10) 0.3 
Female (11-14) 0.86 Female (11-14) 0.3 
Male (11-14) 0.98 Male (11-14) 0.3 
Female (15-18) 0.86 Female (15-17) 0.3 
Male (15-18) 1.18 Male (15-17) 0.3 
Female (19-24) 0.86 Female (18-24) 0.5 
Male (19-24) 1.14 Male (18-24) 0.5 
Female (25-50) 0.86 Female (25-50) 0.5 
Male (25-50) 1.14 Male (25-50) 0.5 
Female (>50) 0.75 Female (>50) 0.5 
Male (>50) 0.9 Male (>50) 0.5 

 

2.3. Differences between Cost-Based, Calorie-Based, and Nutrient-Specific Scales 
We compare average household nutrient availability per adult male equivalent based on three different 

equivalency scales. Specifically, we examine the difference between estimated average individual daily nutrient 
availability based on our nutrient-specific equivalent scale and that based on calorie-based (via Claro, et al. [9]) per 
capita, and the OECD adult equivalent scales respectively. We do this for each nutrient and test whether the means 
of these differences are equal to zero. Thus, our hypotheses can be defined as: 

 
1 We do not calculate a nutrient-specific adult-equivalent scale for fats in this paper as the Institute of Medicine does not provide fat intake recommendations 
across demographic categories. 



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𝐻0: 𝐷𝑖𝑓𝑓_𝑁𝑢𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑖 = 0                                                                                   (1) 

Where 𝐷𝑖𝑓𝑓_𝑁𝑢𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 is the difference obtained by subtracting measures of daily individual-level nutrient 
availability calculated with the calorie-based, per capita, and OECD adult equivalent scales from the daily individual-

level nutrient availability calculated with the nutrient-specific scale for each nutrient 𝑖 in household ℎ. The t-statistics 
obtained from the testing of these hypotheses will reveal whether the difference between the individual-level nutrient 
availabilities calculated through the nutrient-specific adult-equivalent scale are on average significantly different 
from those calculated through other (calorie-based, per capita, or OECD) adult-equivalent scales. Thus, if the null 
hypotheses are rejected, it would imply that nutrient availability estimates obtained from the above-mentioned adult-
equivalent scales are on average different from each other. 
 

3. Results 
Table 32 reports average daily nutrient availability per household male equivalent based on each of the three 

adult equivalency scales—specifically, the nutrient-specific (column 2), calorie-based (column 3), per capita (column 
4), and OECD (column 5) adult-equivalent scales. Column 1 of Table 3 reports the daily recommendation of each 
nutrient for an adult male, for reference. Because the average nutrient availability units reported in Columns 3-5 are 
in adult male equivalents, estimated availabilities can be compared to the daily recommendations reported in column 
1. Thus, if a household’s nutrient availability calculated with the nutrient-specific scale is lower than the daily 
recommendation reported in column 1, then the household is deficient in that nutrient (i.e., the household does not 
have enough of that nutrient available to meet the daily requirement of all of its members).  Strikingly, we see that 
depending on the nutrient some equivalence scales indicate that the household has a surplus (shortage) of the nutrient 
when the household is actually deficient (sufficient) in it. For example, the OECD scale indicates average Vitamin C 
availability is sufficient when it is actually below the daily recommendation when using the more accurate nutrient-
specific scale. Conversely, the per capita scale indicates that households are, on average, deficient in protein when 
there is actually a small surplus of protein, on average. 
 

Table 3. Summary statistics for nutrient availability from different scales. 

Nutrients  
Daily Requirement Nutrient-Specific Calorie Based Per Capita OECD 

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) 

Carbohydrates (g) 
130 

337.0 373.6 337.0 596.7 
(160.1) (171.9) (160.1) (280.3) 

Proteins (g) 
56 

62.17 53.32 48.14 84.82 
(30.34) (24.97) (23.38) (39.34) 

Vitamin A (mcg) 
900 

133.5 117.7 106.7 182.9 
(138.9) (120.9) (114.8) (178.1) 

Vitamin C (mg) 
80 

65.47 53.30 48.62 83.53 
(71.59) (57.40) (54.29) (87.58) 

Vitamin D (mcg) 
15 

0.416 0.456 0.416 0.721 
(0.559) (0.580) (0.559) (0.909) 

Vitamin B1 (mg) 
1.2 

2.229 2.113 1.909 3.369 
(1.045) (0.962) (0.907) (1.547) 

Vitamin B2 (mg) 
1.3 

0.848 0.772 0.697 1.220 
(0.529) (0.486) (0.447) (0.729) 

Vitamin B3 (mg) 
16 

23.45 21.83 19.70 34.90 
(11.51) (10.32) 9.609 (16.91) 

Vitamin B6 (mg) 
1.3 

2.187 2.232 2.013 3.565 
(1.148) (1.136) (1.057) (1.847) 

Vitamin B9 (mcg) 
400 

599.2 589.2 538.5 927.6 
(626.2) (611.4) (573.9) (948.4) 

Vitamin B12 (mcg) 
2.4 

1.005 0.994 0.898 1.556 
(0.998) (0.993) (0.913) (1.488) 

Calcium (mg) 
1000 

281.5 328.9 296.1 517.6 
(229.2) (261.1) (236.9) (387.9) 

Iron (mg) 
8 

10.04 14.59 13.20 23.22 
(5.859) (7.474) (7.049) (11.80) 

Zinc (mg) 
11 

12.58 10.85 9.763 17.33 
(6.597) (5.434) (4.967) (8.832) 

 
Specifically, when we compare average individual-level nutrient availability constructed via our nutrient-specific 

scale with that via a calorie-based scale (columns 2 and 3 of Table 3, respectively), we find that, on average, estimated 
availability is greater for proteins, vitamins A, C, B1, B2, B3, B9, B12, and zinc when calculated using the nutrient-
specific scale. This indicates that on average a calorie-based scale will underestimate the availability of these nutrients 
within a household. For the rest of the nutrients, the average availability is greater when using the calorie-based 
scale, indicating this scale will underestimate their availability, on average. Comparing the nutrient-specific scale 
with a per capita scale, the per capita scale underestimates nutrient availability for most nutrients with the exception 
of calcium and iron. Finally, average nutrient availability estimated via the OECD equivalency scale substantially 
overestimates individual-level nutrient-availability for all nutrients examined. 

Table 43 reports the average difference between nutrient availability based on the nutrient-specific scales and the 
other three scales and tests whether or not those differences are statistically different from zero. All reported average 

 
2 The figures in parenthesis are the standard deviations of the daily nutrient availability per household male equivalent based on each of the three adult 
equivalency scales. 
3 Table 4 shows missing means for the difference between availabilities calculated through per capita and nutrient-specific adult-equivalent scales for 
carbohydrates, and vitamin D. This is because according to the Institute of Medicine’s guidelines, the requirements for these nutrients do not change with age 
and sex. The missing values in Table 5 and 6 are also because of the same reason. 



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differences are statistically significant at one percent level of significance. The only exception is that there is no 
difference between the nutrient-specific and the per capita scales when estimating household nutrient-availability in 
carbohydrates or vitamin D. This is because daily recommendations for these two nutrients are the same across all 
the demographic cohorts.  Some of the average differences reported in Table 4 are quite substantial as a proportion 
of the daily recommendation. For example, average differences in estimated protein availability range from 
approximately 14% to 40% of the daily recommendation. Average estimated differences in Vitamin B9 range from 
2% to 82% of the daily recommendation. 
 

Table 4. Difference in means between nutrient-specific and other nutrient availabilities. 

Variables Calorie-Based Per Capita OECD 

Carbohydrates -36.64*** - -259.8*** 
Proteins 8.853*** 14.03*** -22.65*** 
Vitamin A 15.74*** 26.80*** -49.45*** 
Vitamin C 12.16*** 16.85*** -18.06*** 
Vitamin D -0.0403*** - -0.305*** 
Vitamin B1 0.117*** 0.320*** -1.139*** 
Vitamin B2 0.0757*** 0.151*** -0.371*** 
Vitamin B3 1.619*** 3.753*** -11.45*** 
Vitamin B6 -0.0446*** 0.174*** -1.378*** 
Vitamin B9 9.947*** 60.66*** -328.5*** 
Vitamin B12 0.0106*** 0.107*** -0.552*** 
Calcium -47.39*** -14.62*** -236.1*** 
Iron -4.550*** -3.156*** -13.18*** 
Zinc 1.736*** 2.819*** -4.746*** 

    Note: *** p<0.01. 

 
To further illustrate this point, we take an example representative household from the NLSS III dataset, 

comprising of two males, aged 48 and 15 years old, and four females aged 67, 43, 12, and 4 years old. These ages 
represent the average age of husbands, wives, sons, daughters, and elderly individuals in the NLSS III dataset. 
Furthermore, we add a 4-year-old female to our representative household to see the effect of additional children on 
the calculated individual-level nutrient availability. We also calculate the average nutrient availability per household 
for every nutrient in the dataset while assuming that if these amounts of every nutrient were available to the 
representative household described above, how the use of calorie-based, per capita, and OECD scales will compare 
with the use of nutrient-specific scale. Table 5 shows these results where a negative number means that the scale in 
question overestimates the individual-level availability for that specific nutrient while a positive number suggests 
underestimation of the same. For example, the calorie-based scale underestimates the individual-level availability of 
proteins while overestimating the individual-level availability of calcium for the representative household in 
comparison with the nutrient-specific scale.  

The results in Table 5 clearly show that the use of a calorie-based, per capita, or OECD adult-equivalence scale 
for all macro- and micronutrients will either underestimate or overestimate the true nutrient availabilities for the 
representative household in the sample. Therefore, the nutrient-specific adult-equivalent scales developed in this 
paper provide a better way of converting the food purchases or consumption data from household surveys into reliable 
measures of individual-level nutrient availabilities, potentially reducing the measurement error in future studies. 
 

Table 5. Over- and underestimation of individual-level nutrient availability from different adult-equivalent 
scales for a representative household. 

Variables Calorie-Based Per Capita OECD 

Carbohydrates (grams) -30.4 - -357.41 
Proteins (grams) 11.08 15.34 -34.76 
Vitamin A (micrograms) 18.56 27.27 -75.07 
Vitamin C (milligrams) 15.35 19.37 -27.81 
Vitamin D (micrograms) -0.04 - -0.41 
Vitamin B1 (milligrams) 0.16 0.33 -1.66 
Vitamin B2 (milligrams) 0.09 0.15 -0.56 
Vitamin B3 (milligrams) 2.13 3.9 -16.94 
Vitamin B6 (milligrams) 0.05 0.23 -1.91 
Vitamin B9 (micrograms) 25.53 70.21 -455.2 
Vitamin B12 (micrograms) 0.04 0.12 -0.77 
Calcium milligrams) -58.48 -32.99 -332.73 
Iron (milligrams) -4.21 -3.05 -16.75 
Zinc (milligrams) 1.96 2.84 -7.53 

 

3.1. Nutrient-Income Elasticities from Different Scales 
As a robustness check for the finding that individual-level nutrient availabilities obtained from different adult-

equivalence scales are significantly different from each other, we calculated the nutrient-income elasticities for all 
macro- and micronutrients using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). In our econometric model comprising of separate 
regression equations, the dependent variables are the natural log of the individual-level nutrient availabilities for 
each macro- and micronutrient calculated using the nutrient-specific, calorie-based, per capita, and OECD adult-
equivalence scales. The main variable of interest is the natural log of per capita household income, while the control 
variables include educational dummy variables for the household head, the number of male and female children (less 
than 17 years old) in the household, the number of male and female adults in the household, and dummy variables 
indicating whether the household is Brahmin caste (upper caste), lives in an urban center, and whether the household 
head is male. Community controls consist of spatial features including distance to market and regional dummies. We 



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also control for community fixed effects. For further discussion on the variables used, refer to Ali, et al. [6]. Table 6 
shows these results. 
 

Table 6. Nutrient-income elasticities for macro- and micronutrients from different scales. 

Nutrient-income elasticities (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) 

Nutrient-Specific Calorie-Based Per Capita OECD Chi-Squared 

Carbohydrates 0.204*** 0.198*** - 0.121*** 47.80*** 
(0.0148) (0.0147) - (0.0157) 

Proteins 0.318*** 0.350*** 0.356*** 0.274*** 226.46*** 
(0.0142) (0.0135) (0.0134) (0.0147) 

Vitamin A 1.061*** 1.082*** 1.085*** 1.015*** 330.76*** 
(0.0387) (0.0382) (0.0378) (0.0399) 

Vitamin C 0.617*** 0.655*** 0.659*** 0.585*** 209.21*** 
(0.0296) (0.0288) (0.0286) (0.0301) 

Vitamin D 0.558*** 0.579*** - 0.626*** 423.49*** 
(0.0210) (0.0218) - (0.0260) 

Vitamin B1 0.229*** 0.247*** 0.251*** 0.180*** 128.91*** 
(0.0121) (0.0117) (0.0117) (0.0131) 

Vitamin B2 0.425*** 0.438*** 0.435*** 0.401*** 552.88*** 
(0.0128) (0.0122) (0.0119) (0.0140) 

Vitamin B3 0.216*** 0.236*** 0.242*** 0.160*** 86.70*** 
(0.0140) (0.0136) (0.0136) (0.0147) 

Vitamin B6 0.141*** 0.180*** 0.185*** 0.110*** 69.14*** 
(0.0135) (0.0129) (0.0130) (0.0141) 

Vitamin B9 0.618*** 0.638*** 0.644*** 0.561*** 238.45*** 
(0.0250) (0.0247) (0.0246) (0.0257) 

Vitamin B12 0.789*** 0.800*** 0.781*** 0.829*** 609.62*** 
(0.0241) (0.0238) (0.0230) (0.0275) 

Calcium 0.544*** 0.532*** 0.538*** 0.455*** 242.45*** 
(0.0215) (0.0215) (0.0214) (0.0224) 

Iron 0.347*** 0.318*** 0.323*** 0.243*** 110.67*** 
(0.0147) (0.0145) (0.0145) (0.0156) 

Zinc 0.214*** 0.235*** 0.241*** 0.161*** 99.59*** 
(0.0142) (0.0136) (0.0136) (0.0147) 

Observations 4,425 4,425 4,425 4,425 4,425 
Note: Robust standard errors in parentheses. 
*** p<0.01. 

 
Columns (1) to (4) of Table 6 show that using a nutrient-specific in comparison to calorie-based, per-capita, or 

OECD adult-equivalence scale results in changes in estimated nutrient-income elasticities. Column (5) of Table 6 
also shows that the null hypothesis of equality of the coefficients in each row was rejected at the 1% level of 
significance. Therefore, we can conclude that the choice of adult-equivalence scale in the calculation of individual-
level nutrient availability might matter when it comes to the estimation of nutrient-income elasticities. Further 
analysis is needed to see if the choice of adult-equivalence scale in the calculation of nutrient availabilities makes a 
difference in other kinds of studies involving their use. 
 

4. Conclusion 
Household surveys usually contain data on food purchases or food consumption that have been used widely used 

to construct of calorie and nutrient availability in a household. While this approach provides a good measure of 
household-level nutrient availability, it is problematic to translate this measure into individual-level nutrient 
availability when nutrient requirements differ depending on demographic cohorts and households differ in their 
demographic make-up. To address this problem, adult equivalency scales are often employed in which household 
nutrient availability is divided by the number of adult equivalents in the household. Different equivalency scales, such 
as per capita, the OECD, or calorie-based scales, result in different estimated numbers of adult equivalents. While 
each of these scales are appropriate for certain situations they cannot be universally applied to every macro- and 
micronutrient. For example, when individual-level calorie availability is calculated using a calorie-based scale, none 
of them provide accurate estimates of household nutrient availability per adult male equivalent for other important 
macro- and micronutrients. 

In this paper, we propose a set of adult-equivalent scales for macro- (carbohydrates and proteins) and 
micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) based on the specific daily intake requirement for each nutrient across 
different demographic cohorts. These nutrient-specific scales can be used in future research relying on household 
food expenditure/availability surveys to arrive at individual-level nutrient availability measures. Using this more 
accurate scale for nutrient-specific adult equivalents will reduce measurement error in these studies.  

We find that other commonly used adult-equivalent scales can result in drastically different estimates of nutrient-
availability per adult equivalent. Moreover, they can misrepresent whether a household has enough of a nutrient 
available to meet its needs or if it is actually deficient in that nutrient. Therefore, it is necessary to use equivalency 
scales that are appropriate for the nutrient of interest and the demographic make-up of the household. 
 

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