Level of Knowledge and Practice of Mothers on Minimum Dietary Diversity Practices and Associated Factors for 6–23-Month-Old Children in Adea Woreda, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background. Globally, undernutrition is responsible for at least 35% of deaths in children less than 5 years of age and estimated 6% of under-five deaths can be prevented by ensuring optimal complementary feeding especially the dietary diversity and meal frequency. In Ethiopia, 5% of children were fed according to minimum standards with respect to food diversity. Objective. To assess the level of knowledge and practice of mothers on dietary diversity practices and associated factors for children 6–23 months in Adea woreda. Methods. Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted. A sample of 730 mothers who have children in the age group of 6–23 months were selected using systematic sampling. Logistic regression model was fitted in order to identify factors associated with knowledge and practice of dietary diversity practice. Result. Of the total 700, 357 (51%) were knowledgeable on dietary diversity but 112 (16%) practiced appropriate dietary diversity practice for their 6–23-month-old children. Husbands' education (AOR = 2.79, 95% CI = (1.55, 5.00)), mothers' age, and marital status were significantly associated with knowledge of mothers. Mothers' age, husbands' education, marital status, and knowledge of mothers were significantly associated with mothers' dietary diversity for 6–23-month-old children. Conclusion. This study showed that approximately half of the mothers have good knowledge on minimum dietary diversity for children 6–23 months old and very low proportion of children 6–23 months old received diversified meal according to Infant and Young Child Feeding indicators. It was identified that different factors are responsible for this discrepancy.

Impacts of Caregivers’ Nutrition Knowledge and Food Market Accessibility on Preschool Children’s Dietary Diversity in Remote Communities in Southeast Nigeria

“…The scale of a farm business encourages farm and production diversity [77]. It is also an important source of improved cash income, wealth, and earnings, which increases economic access to diverse foods and consumption of quality and diversified diets [44,82,[88][89][90][91].…”

EAACI position paper on diet diversity in pregnancy, infancy and childhood: Novel concepts and implications for studies in allergy and asthma

“…There is a nonexhaustive list of factors that may affect allergy outcomes, but potential confounders should be corrected for analysing associations between diet diversity and allergy outcomes Diet diversity can be measured by counting individual foods, 31,37,[42][43][44][45][46] food groups 30,[34][35][36]38,39,41,43,[47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54] or foods within a group, 32,33,55,56 and can be measured over a time period ranging from the previous 24 hours (24-hour recalls) [31][32][33][34][35]38,40,44,46,48 or over a 7day period 33,39,42,47,53,[55][56][57] to intake over one year. Food intake data may be collected once [32][33][34]…”

Dietary diversity and associated factors among lactating mothers in Debre Tabor General Hospital, Northcentral Ethiopia

“…10 A study in Oromia, Ethiopia showed that 16% of the women practiced appropriate dietary diversity practice for their 6-23-month-old children, this reflects that dietary diversity among women as well as the household is very low since children dietary diversity is a proxy indicator to show this low DDS. 11,12 In the rural households of Ethiopia, the dietary diversity at household level was 21.1%, 62.7% and 16.2% as low, medium and high HDD respectively. About sixteen (16.2%) had adequate HDDS and it was associated with radio, mobile phone, bank account, food exchange, and ownership of small animals.…”

“…The magnitude of knowledge and practice towards dietary diversity in Ade, Oromia region was 51% and 16% respectively even if it is affected by different factors. 11 In addition in Gondar, Southwest Ethiopia, poor dietary intake exists among lactating mothers which suggest an inadequate intake of nutrients. 2 In another study, the mean DDS was 3.4 with the prevalence of having poor/low dietary diversity among lactating mothers was 56.4% which is very high in magnitude.…”