Fish is readily available to fishing communities. Given the high nutritional value of fish, these communities are expected to have better nutritional status, compared to non-fishing communities. However, this assumption is not well studied across coastal fishing communities in Ghana. Hence, this cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the nutritional status, dietary patterns, and fish consumption of children living in coastal fishing communities in Ghana. Nutritional status of 384 randomly selected children was assessed using the mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) measurement. MUAC less than 12.5 cm was used as the cutoff to identify malnourished children. Food and fish consumption patterns were assessed using an adopted and pretested food frequency questionnaire. The findings showed a prevalence of 0.5% wasting among surveyed children. The mean dietary diversity score (DDS) of the study participants was 4.3 ± 1.2. The mean DDS of the children of fisher mothers was less than that of the children of the female caregivers who are involved in other occupations. However, no significant difference was observed in the DDS across the coastal regions. Seventy eight percent of the children who participated in the study consumed an adequately diversified diet, and more than 40 different small fish species were consumed across the four coastal regions. The average median weekly fish intake among the children in the study sample was 213 (64–468) g. Considering that one-third of the employed respondents were fisherfolk, coupled with the availability of a great diversity of small fish in the communities, the findings of our study suggest that there is great potential to incorporate small fish into strategic interventions aimed at improving nutrition, food security, and achieving economic sustainability in these communities.

捕鱼社区很容易获得鱼。鉴于鱼类的高营养价值，与非渔业社区相比，这些社区预计将拥有更好的营养状况。然而，加纳沿海渔业社区并未对这一假设进行充分研究。因此，这项横断面研究旨在调查加纳沿海渔业社区儿童的营养状况、饮食模式和鱼类消费。使用中上臂围 (MUAC) 测量来评估 384 名随机选择的儿童的营养状况。MUAC 小于 12.5 厘米被用作识别营养不良儿童的分界线。使用已采用和预先测试的食物频率调查问卷评估食物和鱼类消费模式。调查结果显示，接受调查的儿童消瘦率为 0.5%。研究参与者的平均饮食多样性得分 (DDS) 为 4.3 ± 1.2。渔民母亲的孩子的平均 DDS 低于从事其他职业的女性照顾者的孩子。然而，沿海地区的 DDS 没有观察到显着差异。参与研究的儿童中有 78% 的饮食充分多样化，四个沿海地区食用了 40 多种不同的小鱼。研究样本中儿童的平均每周鱼摄入量为 213（64-468）克。考虑到三分之一的就业受访者是渔民，再加上社区中存在多种小鱼，