Association of minimum dietary diversity and minimum meal frequency with anthropometric parameters among children of 6 to 23 months of age attending immunization clinic of a tertiary care hospitals

Abstract

Background: The age of 6–23 months is the golden period in the first 1000 days of life. Insufficient quantities, frequencies, and inadequate quality of complementary feedings have a negative effect on child health and growth, especially in the first two years of life.Methods: A hospital based descriptive type of observational study was carried out in the immunization clinic. The source population were the mothers who had children in age group of 6-23 months brought to the clinic in the month of January 2021 comprise the “target population”. The sample size of 102 was calculated with 80% of power, confidence level of 95% and considering prevalence of MDD as 15.2%. Purposive sampling technique was employed for selection of study sample. Proportion of Minimum Meal Diversity and Minimum Meal Frequency was calculated and their association was assessed with anthropometric characteristics.Results: Proportion of MDD was found to be 72.5% (Figure 1) whereas Proportion of MMF was found to be 87.3 %. The proportion of MDD was significantly high among the children who had minimum meal frequency. MDD and MMF were protective against the acute malnutrition among the children.Conclusions: This study shows that consumption of a diverse diet and MMF is associated with a reduction in undernutrition among children of 6 to 23 months of age. Measures to improve the type of complementary foods given to children to meet their needs for energy and nutrients should be considered.