Minimum acceptable diet practice and its associated factors among children aged 6–23 months in rural communities of Goncha district, north West Ethiopia

Abstract

Background After the first 6 months breast milk is no longer sufficient to meet the nutritional needs of the infant. Therefore, complementary foods should be added to the child’s diet. Feeding children with a diversified diet is practiced improperly in developing countries including Ethiopia particularly in the rural community of the Amhara region. However, limited information was documented on the rural communities and no data were available specifically in the study area to show the exact picture of child feeding practices. So, this study was planned to assess minimum acceptable diet practice and its associated factors among children aged 6–23 months in the rural community of Goncha district, Amhara region, Ethiopia. Methods Community-based cross-sectional study was employed to determine minimum acceptable diet practice and its associated factors among children aged 6–23 months at rural communities of Goncha district, East Gojjam zone, Amhara region, Ethiopia. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select study subjects, and an interview administered structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data were entered by Epi Data version 4.0.2 and exported to SPSS 20 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to see the association. Then, P-value < 0.05 with 95% CI on multivariable logistic regression analysis were used to identify the predictor of the outcome variable. Results A total of 430 mothers who have children aged 6–23 months were included in the analysis with a 98% of response rate. About 12.6% of children aged 6–23 months received the recommended minimum acceptable diet. Children whose mothers who had formal education [AOR = 2.7, 95%CI (1.133, 6.231)], institutional delivery [AOR = 4.5, 95%CI (1.986, 10.362)], media exposure [AOR = 2.6, 95%CI (1.303, 5.291)] and higher household wealth index [AOR = 2.5, 95%CI (1.139, 5.90)] were significantly associated with minimum acceptable diet. Conclusion The practice of minimum acceptable diet in the study area was inadequate and very low according to the national recommendation. So, strengthening institutional delivery, improving the wealth of the community and exposure to media, and finally empowering women’s’ for education is recommended.

Determinants of Inadequate Minimum Dietary Diversity Intake Among Children Aged 6–23 Months in Sub-Saharan Africa: Pooled Prevalence and Multilevel Analysis of Demographic and Health Survey in 33 Sub-Saharan African Countries

“…Children from lower-middle and higher middle-income level countries also have less chance to have inadequate MDD as compared to lower-income levels. This is in line with a study conducted in India (27,61,62), Bangladesh (47), South Asia (22), Tanzania (25), and Ethiopia (12,55,56), but other studies in Ethiopia showed that no association with it (10,14). This difference might be due to the small sample size and covers the small district of the latter two studies.…”

“…This study showed that, as the educational status of women improves, so do their chances of having children who did not access MDD. This is supported by a study conducted in Indonesia (9), Bangladesh (47), South Asia (22), India (27), Tanzania (25), Ghana (53), and Ethiopia (14,(54)(55)(56). Mothers' knowledge of child feeding was positively associated with MDD in childfeeding practice (10,12,54).…”

Trends and determinants of minimum acceptable diet intake among infant and young children aged 6–23 months in Ethiopia: a multilevel analysis of Ethiopian demographic and health survey

“…The current study also pointed out that infants and children of households with medium and highest wealth indexes were more likely to receive the minimum acceptable diet compared to those with the lowest wealth index. This finding was similar to studies conducted in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo [ 46 ], Philippines [ 49 ], and Goncha district, north West Ethiopia [ 48 ]. This may be due to the fact that diversifying diet and frequent feeding relies on the income of the households to secure their diet, which may be a difficulty for low-income countries like Ethiopia.…”

“…The odds of receiving the minimum acceptable diet were higher among mothers who attended primary school and above educational levels compared to those who had no formal education. This finding was supported by previous studies from South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo [ 46 ], Dembecha district, Northwest Ethiopia [ 47 ], and Goncha district, Northwest Ethiopia [ 48 ]. This may be due to the fact that those who attended education might have the chance to learn about diet and child feeding practices.…”

“…Our study also identified that media exposure was the predictor of the recommended minimum acceptable diet for infants and young children. This finding was supported by studies conducted in Ethiopia [ 48 , 52 ]. This was due to the fact that some basic health services such as infant and young children feeding practices were transmitted through both local and international medias.…”