Minimum acceptable diet and associated factors among children aged 6-23 months in Ethiopia
Haimanot Abebe1, Molla Gashu2, Aynalem Kebede3
1Department of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Wolkite University, Wolkite, Ethiopia. haimanotabebe78@gmail.com.
Insights
In Ethiopia, 74.6% of children aged 6-23 months met the minimum acceptable diet. Key factors included husband's education and mother's age, highlighting the need for targeted nutritional interventions.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Public Health Nutrition
- Child Development
Background:
- Child malnutrition in Ethiopia is linked to poor complementary feeding practices.
- Limited data exists on the minimum acceptable diet (MAD) and its determinants in Addis Ababa.
- Optimal breastfeeding alone is insufficient if complementary feeding is inadequate.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the prevalence of the minimum acceptable diet (MAD) among children aged 6-23 months in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
- To identify factors associated with achieving the MAD in this population.
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional study involving 575 mother-child pairs was conducted.
- Data was collected using adapted World Health Organization (WHO) questionnaires.
- Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses identified significant predictors (p < 0.05).
Main Results:
- The prevalence of the minimum acceptable diet (MAD) was 74.6%.
- Minimum meal frequency (90.6%) and dietary diversity (80.2%) were high.
- Significant factors included husband's education, mother's occupation, postnatal follow-ups, mother's age, child's sex, and child's age.
Conclusions:
- The minimum acceptable diet (MAD) is influenced by socioeconomic and demographic factors in Addis Ababa.
- Interventions should focus on paternal education, maternal employment, gender equity in feeding, and postnatal care.
- Public health initiatives are crucial to combat intergenerational malnutrition.
Introduction:
The health and growth of children less than two years of age can be affected by the poor quality of complementary foods and poor feeding practices even with optimal breastfeeding. In Ethiopia, empirical evidence on the minimum acceptable diet and its associated factors is limited. Therefore, this study was aimed to assess the level of minimum acceptable diet and its associated factors among children aged 6-23 months in Addis Ababa Ethiopia.
Methods:
An institution-based Cross-sectional study was conducted among a total of 575 mother-child pairs. A simple random sampling technique was used to recruit participants. For infant and young child feeding practices, the data collection tools were adapted from world health organizations' standardized questionnaire which is developed in 2007. Data entry and analysis were performed using EPI data version 3.1 and SPSS version 20 respectively. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to determine predictor variables. Statistical significance was declared at p-value < 0.05.
Result:
In this study, the level of minimum acceptable diet was found to be 74.6%.. About 90.6 and 80.2% of the children received minimum meal frequency and dietary diversity respectively. Having a husband secondary and above educational level [AOR = 4.789(95%CI:1.917-11.967)], being a housewife [AOR = 0.351(95% CI: 0.150-0.819)], having a history of more than three postnatal follow-ups [AOR = 2.616(95%CI:1.120-6.111], Having mothers age between 25 and 34 years [AOR = 2.051(95%CI:1.267-3.320)], being male child [AOR = 1.585(95%CI:1.052-2.388)] and having children age between 18 and 23 months [AOR = 3.026(95%CI:1.786-5.128)] were some of the factors significantly associated with a minimum acceptable diet.
Conclusion:
In this study, the minimum acceptable diet among children aged 6-23 months was significantly associated with the educational status of the husband, mother's occupation, history of postnatal follow-up, age of the mother, sex of the child, and age of the child. Thus, attention should be given to educating the father, empowering mothers to have a job, promoting gender equality of feeding, and counseling on the benefit of postnatal care visits. In addition, the ministry of health should work on educating and advocating the benefit of feeding the recommended minimum acceptable diet to break the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition.
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