MINIMUM ACCEPTABLE DIET PRACTICE AND ITS ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG CHILDREN AGED 6-23 MONTH IN ALLE SPECIAL WOREDA, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA, 2023

Abstract

ABSTRACT The global strategy of infant and young child feeding recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months of life and continued breastfeeding with timely, adequate, and safe complementary feeding up to 2 years of age or beyond. A minimum acceptable diet is an indicator for evaluating child feeding practices that combines minimum dietary diversity, and minimum meal frequency to ensure appropriate growth and development of infant and young children. Otherwise, they are vulnerable to under-nutrition especially stunting and micronutrient deficiencies. Therefore objective of this study was to assess practice of minimum acceptable diet and its associated factors among Children Aged 6-23 month in Alle special woreda. Community based cross sectional study was employed using multi stage Stratified sampling technique among 323 study participants. Data was collected using structured questionnaire through face-to-face interview. The data was entered to Epi-info 7.1.14 and analyzed by SPSS version 20. The descriptive result was presented with a frequency table and graphs. Variables with a p-value less than 0.25 in bivariable analysis were selected for multivariable logistic regression. The P-value and 95% CI of OR were used to identify significant factors. As a result, the prevalence of minimum acceptable diet, minimum dietary diversity, and minimum feeding frequency were 25.8%, 28.6%, and 90%, respectively. Maternal knowledge (AOR = 2.02; 95% CI: 1.14–3.59; P = 0.016), household food security (AOR = 3.13; 95% CI: 1.75–5.59; P = 0.001), postnatal care visit (AOR = 4.73; 95% CI: 1.71–13.11; P = 0.003), child’s age (AOR = 2.57; 95% CI: 1.29–5.11; P = 0.007), and marriage type (AOR=3.51; 95% CI: 1.83-6.73; P = 0.001) were significantly associated with minimum acceptable diet. This result indicates that practice of minimum acceptable diet in study area was low. Therefore, to promote a minimum acceptable diet, taking preventive action among food insecure households, mothers with poor knowledge, households where the father married with multiple women, mothers who do not attend postnatal care visits, and mothers of children aged 6–11 months is recommended. The most commonly used key words were minimum acceptable diet, children, practice, factors, indicators, Ethiopia, and WHO .