Fathers’ Complementary Feeding Support Strengthens the Association Between Mothers’ Decision-Making Autonomy and Optimal Complementary Feeding in Nigeria

Abstract

Background Evidence about the effects of mothers’ decision-making autonomy on complementary feeding is not consistent, generating hypotheses about whether complementary feeding social support moderates the relationship between mothers’ decision-making autonomy and the practice of complementary feeding. Objectives This study examined the moderation effect of fathers’ complementary feeding support on the association of mothers’ decision-making autonomy with the WHO complementary feeding indicators of minimum dietary diversity, minimum meal frequency, and minimum acceptable diet, and post-hoc secondary outcomes of feeding eggs or fish the previous day. The study also examined the concordance between mothers’ and fathers’ perspectives of mothers’ autonomy and fathers’ complementary feeding support. Methods Data were from cross-sectional surveys of 495 cohabiting parents of children aged 6–23 months enrolled in an Alive & Thrive initiative implementation research study in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Logistic regression models were used to examine moderation. Kappa statistics and 95% confidence intervals were used to assess the concordance in reported perspectives of the parents. Results The moderation results show that the simple slopes for decision-making were significant for minimum meal frequency, minimum acceptable diet, and feeding children fish the previous day when fathers offered ≥ 2 complementary feeding support actions. There were no significant findings in the moderation models for minimum dietary diversity or feeding children eggs the previous day. The findings from the concordance tests show moderate to substantial agreement (ranging from 57.6% to 76.0%) between parents’ perspectives of mothers’ autonomy, and moderate to excellent agreement (ranging from 52.1% to 89.1%) between parents’ perspectives of fathers’ complementary feeding support. Conclusions In Nigeria, high levels of fathers’ complementary feeding support strengthen the association of mothers’ decision-making autonomy with minimum meal frequency, minimum acceptable diet, and feeding children fish the previous day. Registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04835662).

Prevalence and Predictors of Complementary Feeding Practices Among Children Aged 6-23 Months in Indonesia

“…Further, fathers with higher education levels had greater knowledge of IYCF and were more supportive and involved in feeding their infants [ 23 ]. Fathers are the primary decision-makers and providers of resources in the household in many settings; therefore, their roles in infant feeding such as supporting mothers’ decisions on IYCF are vital [ 24 , 25 ].…”