Abstract
BackgroundDietary diversity has long been recognized as a key element of high quality diets. Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD) is the consumption of four or more food groups from the seven food groups. Globally, only few children are receiving nutritionally adequate and diversified foods. More than two-thirds of malnutrition related child deaths are associated with inappropriate feeding practice during the first two years of life. In Ethiopia, only 7 % of children age 6–23 months had received the minimum acceptable diet. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to determine the level of minimum dietary diversity practice and identify the associated factors among children aged 6–23 months in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.MethodsA health facility based cross sectional study was undertaken in the three sub-cities of Addis Ababa from 26th February to 28th April, 2016. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to sample the 352 study participants or mothers who had children aged 6–23 months. Data were collected by using a structured and pretested questionnaire, cleaned and entered into Epi info 7 and analyzed using SPSS 24 software. Logistic regression was fitted and odds ratio with 95% confidence interval (CI) with p-value less than 0.05 was used to identify factors associated with minimum dietary diversity.ResultIn this study, the overall children with minimum dietary diversity score were found to be 59.9%. Mother’s educational attainment and a higher household monthly income were positively associated with the minimum dietary diversity practice. Similarly, mothers’ knowledge on dietary diversity and child feeding was positively associated with minimum dietary diversity child feeding practice, with an adjusted odds ratio of 1.98 (95% CI: 1.11–3.53).ConclusionIn this study, the consumption of minimum dietary diversity was found to be high. In spite of this, more efforts need to be done to achieve the recommended minimum dietary diversity intake for all children aged between 6 and 23 months.
Highlights
Dietary diversity has long been recognized as a key element of high quality diets
The odds of feeding minimum dietary diversity to child’s age 6–23 months was significantly associated and higher among mothers who had attained secondary, and college and above level of education, with an adjusted odds ratio of 4.62 and 4.49 respectively as compared to those who had no formal education
The improvement in infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices plays a critical role in the improved nutrition, health and development of a child [20] and it is due to this reason that the world health organization recommends the consumption of at least four food groups [2]
Summary
Dietary diversity has long been recognized as a key element of high quality diets. Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD) is the consumption of four or more food groups from the seven food groups. In Ethiopia, only 7 % of children age 6–23 months had received the minimum acceptable diet. The main aim of this study was to determine the level of minimum dietary diversity practice and identify the associated factors among children aged 6–23 months in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The World Health Organization (WHO) has established guidelines with respect to Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) practices for children aged 6–23 months by considering Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD) as one of the core eight indicators [1]. Inappropriate feeding practice is one of the reasons for under nutrition in many developing countries where diets are mostly based on starchy staples (staple foods) and seasonal fruits and vegetables with few or no animal products [1]. More than two-thirds of malnutrition related child deaths are associated with inappropriate feeding practice during the first two years of life [5, 6]
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