Dietary diversity score and associated factors among high school adolescent girls in a selected school of Yeka Sub-city, Addis Ababa

Introduction: Adequate dietary intake is critical for modification of eating behavior and provides nutrients required for growth particularly among adolescents. The evidence revealed the variation and unrelated data on the prevalence of dietary diversity among adolescent girls in Ethiopia. Objective: To assess the magnitude of dietary diversity and associated factors among high school adolescent girls at the selected school of Yeka Sub-city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2021. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in high schools of the Yeka sub-city. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data. Data were analyzed using SPSS and the characteristics of the study participants were reported using descriptive statistics. A logistic regression model was fitted to identify factors associated with dietary diversity. Result: The mean score of dietary diversity was 4.9 ± 1.47 with a response rate of 97.2% among a proposed number of participants. The dietary diversity score is high in 56.7% and low among 43.3% of adolescents. Stayed a long time on social media (adjusted odds ratio = 2.6), school type (adjusted odds ratio = 6.5), educational status of mother (adjusted odds ratio = 8.7), consuming more sweet food (adjusted odds ratio = 3.6), occupation of the mother (adjusted odds ratio = 2.3), household security (adjusted odds ratio = 2.3), and fear of obese/worried about shape (adjusted odds ratio = 5.0) were statistically associated with low dietary diversity score. Conclusion: The finding of the study revealed that the magnitude of low dietary diversity among adolescent girls was found to be high. Long time social media usage, school type, educational status of the mother, consuming more sweet food, occupation of mother, household food security, and fear of obese/worried about shape were statistically associated with dietary diversity score.