Distribution and determinants of young child feeding practices in the East African region: demographic health survey data analysis from 2008-2011

Abstract

We utilized the most recent Demographic Health Survey data to explore the distribution of feeding practices and examine relationships between complementary feeding and socio-demographic and health behaviour indicators in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. We based our analysis on complementary dietary diversity scores calculated for children 6-23 months old. Geographically, Kenya displayed clear division of children’s diet diversity scores across its regions, unlike Uganda and Tanzania. Less than 40% of the children’s meal frequencies in Uganda and Tanzania had met the minimum daily recommended levels. Only 30-40% of children in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda had consumed diets with adequate diversity. Children’s age, breastfeeding status, mother’s education level and working status, household wealth index, prenatal care visits, receiving vitamin A supplements, using modern contraceptives and meal frequencies were significantly associated with adequate complementary food diversity in at least one of the three countries included in the current analyses. These analyses contribute to a better understanding and targeting of infant and young child feeding within the East African region.

Dietary diversity among smallholder households in Bukoba district, Tanzania and Kiboga district, Uganda

“…The number of households preparing special meals for children is similar to previously reported figures for Uganda [9]. This situation also corresponds with reports that the number of food groups consumed by children increases with age [7,18]. In addition, children aged 9-11 and 12-23 months have been found to be more likely to meet their minimum dietary diversity compared to those aged 6-8 months [27].…”

“…Legumes constitute the main protein source and consumption of fruits and vegetables and animal source proteins is low when compared to other food groups and the individual nutrient requirements [7,8,9,18,19]. The higher consumption of fish in Bukoba compared to Kiboga can be attributed to the proximity of Lake Victoria to Bukoba district compared to the proximity of any large lake to Kiboga district.…”

Orange Fanta versus orange fruit: A novel measure of nutrition knowledge in Malawi

“…Like prior literature, we found wealth to be strongly positively associated with all dietary diversity outcomes measured, and conditional on that we found that nutrition knowledge had no additional explanatory power for women's dietary diversity measured in a variety of ways (Gewa & Leslie, ; Harris‐Fry et al, ; Jones, ; Jones et al, ). Consistent with prior studies, we observed that having a garden is associated with greater likelihood of consuming MnD‐FFVs, but we found that it is also negatively associated with meeting MDD levels presumably due to the absence of other foods.…”

Effect of nutrition education and psychosocial factors on child feeding practices: findings of a field experiment with biofortified foods and different women categories

“…Past studies evaluating women's behavior toward IYCF practices in Kenya have focused on variety of factors, including socioeconomic aspects, with attention to HIV-AIDS status of mothers (Dasgupta et al 2017;Gewa and Leslie 2015;Kimani-Murage et al 2013;Wanjiku et al 2015;Wanjohi et al 2017); community level factors including access to health care facilities and community worker's incentive system (Nguyen et al 2016); parental role in decision-making and care practices (Chintalapudi et al 2017); intrahousehold factors including caregivers' competence (Schneider et al 2017) and the policy environment (Sanghvi et al 2016). Further, Issaka, Agho, and Renzaho (2017), Habtewold, Islam, and Sharew et al (2017), and Ogbo, Page, and Idoko et al (2015) use meta-analysis to examine the effect of multiple factors on IYCF.…”