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. 2017 Oct 12;16(1):181.
doi: 10.1186/s12939-017-0680-1.

Minimum dietary diversity and associated factors among children aged 6-23 months in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Dagmawit Solomon  1 , Zewdie Aderaw  2 , Teketo Kassaw Tegegne  3
Affiliations

Minimum dietary diversity and associated factors among children aged 6-23 months in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Dagmawit Solomon et al. Int J Equity Health. .

Abstract

Background: 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. 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.

Methods: A 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.

Result: In 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).

Conclusion: In 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.

Keywords: Ethiopia; Food groups; Infant and young child feeding practice; Minimum dietary diversity.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical clearance and supporting letter were obtained from the Ethical Review Committee of Debre Markos University and GAMBY College of Medical Sciences to conduct the study. A letter of permission was obtained from the Addis Ababa health bureau and communicated to the selected health centers. The study participants were briefly introduced about the study and their full right to participate in this study or not and their right to withdraw at any time during the course of the interview. Before the actual data collection, a written informed consent was obtained from each study participant. Their privacy and confidentiality was ensured and the information obtained from them would not be disclosed to third party. They were also informed that they wouldn’t get any direct benefit from been participating in the study, but their participation and the finding of this study might benefit for the improvement of their children’s and others health.

Consent for publication

“Not applicable”.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Types of food groups consumed by children aged 6–23 months in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2016 (n = 352)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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