Minimum Dietary Diversity and Its Associated Factors Among Infants and Young Children in Ethiopia: Evidence from Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (2016)

Abstract

Background: Adequate infant and young child feeding during the first 1000 days of life is very essential to improve child health, survival, growth and development through adequate minimum dietary diversity (MDD). Hence, this study aimed to assess MDD and its multi-level factors among infants and young children aged 6-23 months in Ethiopia. Methods: Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS-2016) data were used to identify both individual and community-level factors. Weighted samples of 2,962 children were eligible and a multi-level regression model was used for the analysis. Finally, factors with a P-value of < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: The prevalence of MDD among children in Ethiopia was 13.67%. According to this study, the significant associated factors at the individual level were having a mother who attended higher education (AOR=2.72, (95%CI; _1.54-4.80)) and secondary education (AOR=1.68, (95% CI; _ 1.06-2.68)), mother’s agricultural occupation (AOR=1.57, (95% CI_, 1.06-2.31)) and living in the household with richest wealth index (AOR=3.20, (95%CI; _1.74-5.91)). And at the community level children residing in Benishangul (AOR=3.38, (95%CI; _ 1.75-6.51)), Oromiya (AOR=2.99 (95%CI_1.63-5.48)), Addis Ababa (AOR=2.62, (95%CI_1.32-5.22)), and Amhara (AOR=0.25, (95% CI; - 0.09-0.64)) regional states were getting adequate MDD. Conclusion: Educational and occupational status of the mother, wealth index and region were significantly associated with MDD. Therefore, addressing the above factors will help the level of diversified food consumption among children. Funding Information: Funding is not applicable for this study. Declaration of Interests: All authors declared that no competing interest in this study. Ethics Approval Statement: To conduct this study, ethical approval letter for the use of the EDHS data set gained from the Measure DHS (ORC MACRO). No information was obtained from the data set disclosed to any third person.