Pregnant Mothers Diversified Dietary Intake and Associated Factors in Southwest Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Dietary diversity is very critical for fetal growth and development, as well as for the health and wellbeing of the mother. In Ethiopia, 41% of pregnant mothers consume diversified diets. There has been no study assessing whether pregnant women in southwest Ethiopia consume a varied diet.

To estimate the proportion of adequate diversified dietary intake and to determine whether there is an association between diversified dietary intake and mothers' social capital.

A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 367 pregnant women in South West Ethiopia. A 24-hour multiple-pass dietary recall method was used to measure dietary intake and the 10 food groups of FANTA/FAO 2016 were used to analyze dietary diversity. Social capital was assessed based on the number of social networks in which a mother participated.

The proportion of diversified dietary intake was 14.7% (95% CI: 11.1, 18.3). Pregnant mothers who had social capital, had their own income, had emotional support from their husbands, were from a rich family, and had a frequent dietary intake were statistically associated with a diversified dietary intake, with an AOR of 7.8 (95% CI 1.02, 2.3 (95% CI 1.12, 4.44), 4.0, (95% CI 1.16, 13.7), 59.19), 2.3 (95% CI 1.04, 5.26), and 1.5 (95% CI 1.04, 2.07), respectively.

Diversified dietary intake was found to be lower than previously reported, and it was associated with social capital. Methodologically rigorous studies are required to verify the association between social capital and adequate diversified dietary intake.