Factors Associated With Minimum Dietary Diversity Among Children Aged 6 to 23 Months in Debre Berhan Town, Central Ethiopia: Community-based Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Minimum dietary diversity (MDD) is the consumption of four or more food groups from the seven food groups. Poor infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices in the first 2 years of age are among major causes of childhood undernutrition, illness, and mortality. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating MDD and its associated factors among IYC aged 6–23 months in Debre Berhan town, central Ethiopia.Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was undertaken from January 1 to 30, 2017. A simple random sampling technique was used to sample 377 IYC aged 6-23 months with mothers/caregivers. An interviewer-administered structured and pretested questionnaire was used to collect data through a face-to-face interview. Data were cleaned and entered into Epidata 3.1, exported to SPSS software version 20. Logistic regression was fitted and an odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval (CI) and p-value less than 0.05 was used to identify factors associated with MDD. Results: A total of 377 IYC aged 6-23 months with mothers/caregivers were participated in the study. The proportion of children who met the MDD practice was 58.4%. Mother’s education [(AOR = 0.15; 95% CI = 0.02-0.88), (AOR = 0.21; 95% CI = 0.05-0.97)], mother’s occupation (AOR = 0.28; 95% CI = 0.15-0.54), father’s occupation (AOR = 3.45; 95% CI = 1.40-8.54), and number of antenatal care visit by mothers (AOR = 0.54; 95% CI = 0.30-0.97) were factors associated with MDD among IYC.Conclusion: Even though the study showed better progress as compared to the national prevalence of the consumption of MDD, it is substandard in the study area. Thus, more efforts need to be done to achieve the recommended MDD intake for all children aged between 6 and 23 months. Increasing mothers’ level of education, creating employment opportunities for both mothers and fathers’, and increasing the frequency of ANC service use are vital interventions to improve IYCF practices in Debre Berhan town.

Trend and determinants of minimum dietary diversity consumption change among children aged 6–23 months in Ethiopia from 2011 to 2019: A multivariate decomposition analysis

“…The mothers behavior of who were employed contributed to an increased change in the consumption of adequate MDD from 2011 to 2016. This is supported by other study findings in East Gojjam Ethiopia [ 27 ], Central Ethiopia [ 21 ], and Bangladesh [ 23 ]. The behaviors of the female household head had a negative contribution to the change in consumption of adequate MDD from 2011 to 2016.…”

“…The behaviors of mothers from middle-wealth index households contributed by increasing change in consumption of adequate MDD among children from 2011 to 2016 and the behavior of mothers from rich-wealth index households contributed by decreasing changes in adequate MDD consumption reduction from 2016 to 2019. This is supported by other study findings in East Gojjam Ethiopia [ 27 ], Central Ethiopia [ 21 ], Sri Lanka [ 46 ], and Bangladesh [ 23 ]. This may be related to children from middle and rich households being more likely to get eggs, fruits, and vegetables because of the economic well-being of the family.…”

“…A child who consumed at least five of the eight food groups in the 24 hours preceding the interview labeled as consuming adequate MDD”1” and else inadequate MDD “0” was the dependent variable [ 32 ]. Based on different literature and its public health significance of health policy development on nutrition: factors like; age of mother, father or child, sex of household head, educational status of mother and partner [ 5 , 18 , 19 , 21 ], working status of mother and father [ 24 , 25 ], wealth index [ 5 , 18 , 19 ], residence [ 25 ], preceding birth interval, number of under-five living children, and household size were used as independent variable. In this study survey year was used as a decomposing variable which was coded as follows from 2011 to 2016 (2011 labeled as “0” and 2016 labeled as “1”), and from 2016 to 2019 (2016 labeled as “0” and 2019 labeled as “1”).…”

“…Factors, such as the women’s education [ 5 , 18 , 19 ], wealth index [ 5 , 18 , 19 ], antenatal care [ 20 , 21 ], the husband’s educational status [ 5 , 18 , 19 , 21 ], child age [ 5 , 22 ], mass media exposure [ 5 , 18 , 19 ], maternal age [ 22 , 23 ], occupational status [ 24 , 25 ], and residence [ 25 ] were found to be associated factors of MDD among children aged 6 to 23 months in various literatures.…”