The drivers of minimum acceptable diet among children aged 6–23 months in Ethiopia: community-based cross-sectional study

Abstract Background: A minimum acceptable diet is a combination of the minimum dietary diversity and the minimum meal frequency for a child aged 6-23 months. Globally, only one in six children receives a minimum acceptable diet, and the proportion has been reduced to one in nine in Ethiopia. Objective: To assess the prevalence of the minimum acceptable diet and associated factors among children aged 6- 23 months in Dera town, Oromia, Ethiopia. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted. Systematic random sampling techniques were used to select the study subjects. The data was coded, entered into Epi-Info version 7, and then exported to SPSS version 24 for analysis. The variance inflation factor and tolerance test are used to check multicollinearity. Descriptive statistics of frequency (%) were used. Hosmer and Lemeshow's goodness-of-fit test at a P-value > 0.05 is considered the model fit. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were computed with a 95% confidence interval, and a P-value < 0.05 was, considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 430 study subjects were included in this study. The prevalence of a minimum acceptable diet was 36.5% (95% CI: 32, 41%). In the adjusted model, mothers attaining a primary school (AOR = 2.7, 95%CI: 1.3, 4.8), college and above education (AOR = 4.3, 95%CI: 1.4, 13), child age between 12–17 months (AOR = 6.2, 95%CI: 2.80, 13.50) and 18–23 months (AOR = 4.61, 95%CI: 2.04, 10.40), ANC visit four or more (AOR = 2.0, 95%CI: 1.2, 3.4), and not feeding breast (AOR = 0.15, 95% CI: 0.07, 0.31) were significantly associated with meeting the minimum acceptable diet. Conclusion: This study showed that the practice of a minimum acceptable diet was low, according to the World Food Program target. Mothers' educational status, antenatal care visits, age of the child, and breastfeeding were the predictors of the minimum acceptable diet.