Survey data on income, food security, and dietary behavior among women and children from households of differing socio-economic status in urban and peri-urban areas of Nairobi, Kenya

This article describes data collected to analyze consumer behaviors in vulnerable populations by examining key access constraints to nutritious foods among households of differing socio-economic status in urban and peri‑urban areas of Nairobi, Kenya. The key variables studied include wealth status, food security, and dietary behavior indicators at individual and household level. Household food insecurity access scale (HFIAS), livelihood coping strategies (LCS), food expenditure share (FES), food consumption score (FCS), household dietary diversity score (HDDS), minimum dietary diversity-women(MDD-W), and child dietary diversity score (CDDS) indicators were used to measure food security. Household assets were used to develop an asset-based wealth index that grouped the study sample population into five wealth quantiles, while income levels were used to estimate FES. The hypothesis that guided the cross-sectional survey conducted to generate these data is that vulnerability to food insecurity and poverty are important drivers of food choice that influence household and individual dietary behavior. Data from this study was thus used to assess direction and strength of association between; household food insecurity, wealth status, women, children, and household dietary behavior in both urban and peri‑urban populations sampled.