Tuji Techane Sisay* and Addisu Dabi Wake
Background: Accurate complementary feeding plays a great role in preventing childhood under nutrition, infectious disease, and mortalities. The available data suggests that the rates for Minimum Acceptable Diet (MAD) are low across all regions worldwide. For instance, rates are four in every ten (41.1%), in East Asia and Pacific and lowest in West and Central Africa at 8.6%, East and South Africa at 9.8%, and South Asia at 13.0%. However, Factors Associated towards Mothers Practicing Acceptable Diet of 6–23 Months Old Children living in study area is unknown. Therefore, this study was aimed to assess factors associated towards mothers practicing acceptable diet of 6-23 months old children in Gimbichu Woreda, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia.
Materials and methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 782 mothers/caregivers paired with infants and children aged 6 to 23 months with a response rate of 97.1%, from March 12 to April 08, 2019. One-stage cluster sampling technique was employed. A structured pretested tool was used to collect the data. The binary logistic regression analysis was applied for MAD. All variables were transformed to multivariable logistic regression model irrespective of any transforming criteria to control the effects of confounder/s and to identify statistically significant variables. Finally, the variables which had independent correlations with MAD were identified on the basis of Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) and a p-value less than 0.05with 95%CI were claimed as statistically significant.
Results: The proportion of acceptable diet was 30.1% (26.7, 33.1%). Mothers’ secondary and above educational level (AOR= 2.78, 95%CI (1.12, 6.89), mothers attending PNC (AOR=6.45, 95%CI (1.71, 13.33), mothers’ who had good knowledge in infant feeding AOR=8.46, 95%CI; (3.81,11.80), mothers’ involvement on feeding AOR=5.10, 95%CI; (2.47,10.52), mothers whose attending ANC (AOR=3.86, 95% CI (1.99,14.94), wealth index ranked at richest category (AOR=3.24 ,95%CI (1.24,8.45) and husbands’ involvement (AOR=5.75, 95% CI (1.18,12.79) were positively associated with MAD.
Conclusion: The proportion of MAD practice by infants and children of the study area was low. Mothers’ secondary and above educational level, mothers’ attending PNC, mothers’ who had good knowledge on infant feeding, mothers’ involvement on feeding, mothers whose attending ANC, wealth index and husband’s involvement were factors positively associated with MAD. Assuring mother’s involvement on decision making and promoting husband involvement on infant and child feeding are strongly recommended to mitigate the problem.
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