ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Improving infant and young child feeding practices is critical to improved nutrition, health, and development of children. Ethiopia adopted the WHO recommendations of child feeding practices and developed the national guideline. In spite of this fact, only few children start and received appropriate complementary feeding based on the recommendation. Therefore, the study aimed to determine dietary diversity score and its associated factors among under five children at Dabat Health and Demographic Surveillance System site (HDSS), northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: A cross-sectional community based study was carried out from February to June 2016. All children aged 6-59 months old who lived in HDSS site were included in the survey. Odds ratio (OR) with the corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated to show the strength of association. Finally, variables with a P-value of < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.. RESULTS: In this study, a total of 3433 children were included. About 34.87% (95%CI: 33.27, 36.49%) of the children received adequately diversified diet. The odds of receiving adequately diversified diet was higher among children whose mother had secondary and above education (AOR = 6.51; 95%CI: 4.95, 8.56), had antenatal care (AOR = 1.90; 95%CI: 1.60, 2.26) and postnatal care visits (AOR = 1.31; 95%CI: 1.00, 1, 72), and children who feed with their family (AOR = 1.39; 95%CI: 1.17, 1.65). However, a lower dietary diversity score was observed among younger children; 6-11 months old (AOR = 0.59; 95%CI: 0.41, 0.85), and children from food insecure household (AOR = 0.76; 95%CI: 0.63, 0.92). CONCLUSIONS: Diversified diet feeding practice is low in Dabat HDSS site. Age of the child, maternal education, antenatal and postnatal care visits, and household food insecurity were significantly associated with dietary diversity of children. Hence, ensuring household food security and enhancing the coverage of maternal health care utilization are recommended to increase dietary diversity of children.
Subject(s)
Diet , Age Factors , Child, Preschool , Cross-Sectional Studies , Educational Status , Ethiopia/epidemiology , Female , Food Supply , Humans , Infant , Male , Nutrition Surveys , Nutritional Status , Postnatal Care/statistics & numerical data , Prenatal Care/statistics & numerical dataABSTRACT
Under nutrition among adolescents is a major public health problem in Ethiopia and its causes are under investigated. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of stunting and its determinants among adolescent girls in Dabat district. A total of 1556 adolescent girls were included in the study. The WHO's Anthro-plus software was used to generate the height for age z-scores. Variables having a p-value<0.2 in the simple logistic regression were entered into multiple logistic regression and a p-value < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. About 47.4%(95%CI; 45.0, 49.6%) of adolescent girls were stunted. Being in the early (AOR = 0.027, 95%CI: 0.08, 0.09) and middle age (AOR = 0.21, 95%CI: 0.06, 0.71) were less likely to be stunted compared with the late adolescent. The odds of stunting were found to be higher among adolescent of rural area (AOR = 1.45; 95%CI: 1.01, 2.10) and from household food in-secured (AOR = 1.33; 95%CI: 1.02, 1.73)families. Higher numbers of adolescent girls are stunted in Dabat district, suggesting severe public health importance of the problem. Age, residence and food security were associated with adolescent stunting. Thus, improving food security strategies targeting rural and food insecure households is recommended. Abbreviations: AOR= Adjusted Odd Ratio,CI= Confidence Interval, COR= Crude Odd Ratio, ENSSPI=Establishing Nutrition Surveillance System and Piloting Interventions HAZ=Height for Age, HDSS=Health and Demographic Surveillance System, HFSS=Household Food Security Status, INDEPTH=International Network of Demographic Evaluation of Population and Their Health, IQR=Inter Quartile Range, NNP=National Nutrition Program, NSHFP=National School Health and Feeding Program, SPSS=Statically Package for Social Science, WHO= World Health Organization.
Subject(s)
Growth Disorders/epidemiology , Growth Disorders/etiology , Adolescent , Child , Cross-Sectional Studies , Ethiopia/epidemiology , Female , Humans , Nutritional Status , Population Surveillance , Prevalence , Risk Factors , Rural Population , Socioeconomic FactorsABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Adolescence represents a critical stage of life, characterized by rapid physical growth and development; varying levels of physical, social and psychological maturity; and a transition from total socio-economic dependence to relative independence. Focusing on adolescents' nutrition, especially girls, provides a unique opportunity to break the intergenerational cycles of malnutrition. But, there is little information about the dietary diversity of adolescent girls in Dabat district. Therefore, the survey aimed to assess the prevalence and associated factors of dietary diversity among adolescent girls. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of adequate dietary diversity among adolescent girls was 14.5 (95% CI 12.9, 16.2). The prevalence of adequate dietary diversity among adolescent girls was very low and food insecurity is one of the predisposing factors for low dietary diversity. Therefore, working to enhance household's food security status is recommended to boost dietary diversification of adolescent's girls.
