Dietary Diversity and Associated Factors Among Infants and Young Children in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract:Background: Increasing the variety of foods and food groups in the diet ensures that there is adequate intake of essential nutrients. Lack of dietary diversity especially for children 6-23 months is specifically critical because they require energy and nutrient-dense foods for both physical and mental growth and development. Encouraging children aged 6-23 months for appropriate complementary feeding practices reduces the incidence of stunting and leads to better health and growth outcome. A community based cross sectional study was conducted from May-June 2016, among children aged 6-23 months residing in rural districts of Wolaita Zone. Multi-stage sampling technique was applied to select 944 childmother/caregiver paired study population. Data was collected through a pre-tested and structured interviewer administered questionnaire consisting of demographic characteristics variables, household wealth indicators, and dietary assessment tool and entered using Epi-data manager and client entry version 1.4.4.0 and exported to SPSS Version 20 for analysis. Variables having p < 0.25 at bivariate analysis were fitted to multivariate analysis. Odds ratio, P-value and 95% CI were computed to show the association of variables. The proportion of children who consumed minimum acceptable dietary diversity was 43.2% (95% CI: 40.0 -46.6). The Diary and dairy products, meat, Vitamin A rich fruits and vegetables were less commonly consumed food groups. Older children (AOR = 2.49, 95% CI: 1.71, 3.64), maternal education of primary and secondary and above (AOR = 3.32, 95% CI: 2.01, 5.22) and (AOR = 4.78, 95% CI: 2.55, 8.95) were independent predictors of dietary diversity. Conclusion: Even though feeding practice of infants and young children is encouraging, plenty of children are still suffering from consuming inadequate dietary diversity. Hence, due attention has to be given to improve feeding practice of older children. Furthermore, improving parental education and economy result in proper child feeding practice.

Sustainable under nutrition reduction program and dietary diversity among children’s aged 6–23 months, Northwest Ethiopia: Comparative cross-sectional study

“…The proportion of adequate dietary diversity in the study area was 29.9% in line with findings in Nepal (30.4%) [15], Bale zone (28.5%) [16], and Wilayat Sodo, Ethiopia (27.3%) [22].It was lower than reports of studies in Bench Maji zone, Southwest Ethiopia (38%) [23],and Wolaita zone, Southern Ethiopia (41.9%) [24]. The possible reason might be that Ethiopia as a multiethnic country has diverse geographic and weather conditions which may affect the accessibility of adequate dietary diversity.…”

Dietary diversity among school age children in Merawi town, Amhara region, Ethiopia, 2018: a community based cross-sectional study

“…A child with in age group of 6-8 years had a lower dietary diversity than elder school-age children i.e., between 9 and 12 years. This result is consistent with studies conducted in Wolaita Ethiopia [13], but it is inconsistent with findings in China [12] . This may be due to the fact that as the age of the child increases their habit of food choices will increase because of formal and informal learning like influences and discussions with peers, environmental scanning and school based learning.…”

“…In this study, the level of dietary diversity was relatively high, 33% of the children had a high dietary diversity and 59 and 8% had a good and low dietary diversity respectively.. This study is better than researches conducted based on EDHS study 10.8% [31], in Sinan woreda 13% [16], in Dejen woreda 13.6% [15], Gonder Zone 16.2% [14], in Mirab Abaya woreda Southern Ethiopia 34.3% [17] and in wolayita sodo region 43.2% [13]. This may be because of the socio-cultural, economic, geographical differences between the study area and the referenced places.…”

“…The data was collected by four trained nurses using structured interviewer administered questionnaire, which was adopted and modified from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)/ Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA) Guidelines for measuring Household and Individual Dietary Diversity tools and from previous research done on a similar topic [12][13][14][15][16][19][20][21][22][23]. The questionnaire was first prepared in English then translated to Amharic local language for data collection and back translated for consistency.…”

“…The proportion of children who consumed minimum acceptable dietary diversity was 43.2% in wolayita sodo region [13], 16.2% in South Gonder [14], 13.6% in Dejen [15], 13% in Sinan woreda [16], 34.3% in Mirab Abaya woreda Southern Ethiopia [17]. Regarding the level of food insecurity; 48% in Amhara Ethiopia [18], 53% in Gojjam [19], 78.1% in Butajira hospital [20], 63.0% in Jimma [21], 58.16% in Addis Ababa [22] and 58% in East Hararghe zone [23].…”