Evaluación de consumo de alimentos en hogares del cantón Rumiñahui : determinación de ingresos y gastos por tipología de alimentos.

Abstract

This study aimed to determine income and expenses categorized by food types in households of the Rumiñahui canton, evaluating sociodemographic variables and establishing their relationship through correlation coefficients. This is why the employed methodology consist of the following three phases: i) gathering of information through an online questionnaire using Google Forms, providing a filtered database that reveals sociodemographic information about households in the Rumiñahui canton, details about food expenses, and the distribution of these expenses according to food types; ii) statistical analysis of the data, enabling the identification of trends, similarities, and differences among quintiles or groupings based on variables; iii) mathematical analysis through the application of neural networks, which facilitated the understanding of the relationship between expenses and sociodemographic variables. It´s important to mention that the model correlated between 4 and 3 variables with 2 possible output variables, meaning that 3 factors were predictors of either weekly expenses or the relationship between weekly expenses and monthly income. The study holds relevance for academia and anyone seeking to evaluate food consumption while establishing casual connections. The methodology employed serves as a guide for constructing more intricate models that encompass additional variables, contributing to the assessment of food consumption, which in turn forms the foundation for evaluating household-generated waste.