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. 2018 Jan 31;18(1):17.
doi: 10.1186/s12887-018-0989-y.

Timely initiation of complementary feeding to children aged 6-23 months in rural Soro district of Southwest Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

Bereket Yohannes  1   2   3 , Elias Ejamo  4   5 , Thilagavathi Thangavel  4 , Mulugeta Yohannis  4   6
Affiliations

Timely initiation of complementary feeding to children aged 6-23 months in rural Soro district of Southwest Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

Bereket Yohannes et al. BMC Pediatr. .

Abstract

Background: Poor complementary feeding practice to infants is one of risk factors for child undernutrition in Ethiopia. This would vary across the culturally and socioeconomically diverse settings in this country. Thus, this study was aimed to determine the proportion of timely initiated complementary feeding practice of women to their children aged 6-23 months in rural Soro district in Southwest Ethiopia.

Methods: A community based crossectional survey was conducted in Soro district from August to September in 2015. Randomly selected 543 women having children aged 6-23 months were the final sampling units for this study. First, local administrative units (kebeles) of residents were randomly selected from such lists in the district. Secondly, the sample size was proportionally allocated to each selected kebele by population sizes. Individual households were selected by systematic random technique. Data was collected by using a structured questionnaire through face to face interview. Descriptive statistics was done for univariate results, and we applied bivariate logistic regression to look for crude association, and multivariate logistic regression to model predictors with effect measures and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Statistical significance was decaled at P < 0.05.

Results: The proportion of timely initiated complementary feeding was 34.3% at 95%CI: (30.31, 38.29) in this study. Secondary and above education levels of respondents (AOR = 2.25 95%CI: 1.17, 4.30) and husbands (AOR = 2.33 at 95% CI: 1.06, 5.14), and maternal Postnatal Care visits (AOR = 1.94 at 95% CI: 1.19, 3.16) were found independent predictors for timely initiated complementary feeding practice in this study.

Conclusions: Timely complementary feeding practice in the study area was low compared to the standard recommends for it. Education in general and equipping child bearing women with specific messages on Infant and Child Feeding Practices may improve infant and child feeding practice in the area. Optimizing utilization of Postnatal Care by post partum women and including specific advices on complementary feeding are recommended.

Keywords: Complementary feeding; Ethiopia; Timely initiation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors’ information

EE is currently working in a district health office in Southwest Ethiopia. He was a graduate of MSc in Human Nutrition from Wolaita Sodo University in Ethiopia. TT is an associate professor of applied human nutrition in the School of Public Health at Wolaita Sodo University. BY is a PhD Fellow in the Centre for International Health at the University of Bergen in Norway jointly with Hawassa University in Ethiopia. He has been working as an assistant Professor in the School of Public at Wolaita Sodo University, and MY is a graduate of MSc in Human Nutrition from the School of Public in Wolaita Sodo University.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Ethical clearance was obtained from Research Ethics Committee at College of Health Sciences and Medicine in Wolaita Sodo University. The committee due the virtue of its mandate evaluated the written consent feasibility in relation to respondents’ education in rural Soro district and gave as approval for informed verbal consent. Thus, official letter of cooperation in attachment with ethical clearance was submitted to Soro District health office for permission. Through official communications to the lower administrative structures we reached to the study respondents. The nature of the study was explained to the study participants to obtain their verbal informed consent prior to participation. Confidentiality of participants was secured through anonymous codes of questionnaire. Any one sick in the household during the survey was linked to the nearby health facility in the area.

Consent for publication

Not applicable

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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