Abstract
BackgroundImproving infant and young child feeding practices is critical to improved nutrition, health, and development of children. Ethiopia adopted the WHO recommendations of child feeding practices and developed the national guideline. In spite of this fact, only few children start and received appropriate complementary feeding based on the recommendation. Therefore, the study aimed to determine dietary diversity score and its associated factors among under five children at Dabat Health and Demographic Surveillance System site (HDSS), northwest Ethiopia.MethodsA cross-sectional community based study was carried out from February to June 2016. All children aged 6–59 months old who lived in HDSS site were included in the survey. Odds ratio (OR) with the corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated to show the strength of association. Finally, variables with a P-value of < 0.05 were considered statistically significant..ResultsIn this study, a total of 3433 children were included. About 34.87% (95%CI: 33.27, 36.49%) of the children received adequately diversified diet. The odds of receiving adequately diversified diet was higher among children whose mother had secondary and above education (AOR = 6.51; 95%CI: 4.95, 8.56), had antenatal care (AOR = 1.90; 95%CI: 1.60, 2.26) and postnatal care visits (AOR = 1.31; 95%CI: 1.00, 1, 72), and children who feed with their family (AOR = 1.39; 95%CI: 1.17, 1.65). However, a lower dietary diversity score was observed among younger children; 6–11 months old (AOR = 0.59; 95%CI: 0.41, 0.85), and children from food insecure household (AOR = 0.76; 95%CI: 0.63, 0.92).ConclusionsDiversified diet feeding practice is low in Dabat HDSS site. Age of the child, maternal education, antenatal and postnatal care visits, and household food insecurity were significantly associated with dietary diversity of children. Hence, ensuring household food security and enhancing the coverage of maternal health care utilization are recommended to increase dietary diversity of children.
Highlights
Improving infant and young child feeding practices is critical to improved nutrition, health, and development of children
Despite the fact that the findings from this study is higher than a report from Southern (18.8%) [8] and Benishangul Gumuz (23.7%) [16] regions of Ethiopia, all findings are much lower than the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation, greater than 80% [17]
The likelihood of having adequate dietary diversity was higher among children who feed with their family compared to children feed alone
Summary
Improving infant and young child feeding practices is critical to improved nutrition, health, and development of children. Ethiopia adopted the WHO recommendations of child feeding practices and developed the national guideline In spite of this fact, only few children start and received appropriate complementary feeding based on the recommendation. Malnutrition, in its various form, remains a pressing and significant health problem of children in Ethiopia [1]. It affects mortality and ill-health along the entire continuum of care from early childhood to adulthood [2]. Improving infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices is critical to improved nutrition, health, and development of children [2, 6]
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