Minimum Dietary Diversity and Its Associated Factors Among Pregnant Mothers in Bure District Public Health Facility, North West Ethiopia

ABSTRACT Minimum dietary diversity intake during pregnancy increases risks of intrauterine growth restriction, abortion, low birth weight, preterm birth, prenatal, and infant mortality, and morbidity and has long‐lasting health impacts. Dietary diversity during pregnancy promotes the health status of the mother and her fetus. Therefore, this research aimed to address this gap by assessing minimum dietary diversity and associated factors among pregnant women who have given attending antenatal care. To assess the minimum dietary diversity and associated factors among pregnant mothers attending the west Gojjam Zone public health facility, North West Ethiopia, 2025. A facility‐based cross‐sectional study was conducted among 418 pregnant women who attended antenatal care from October 1 to May 12/2025 in west Gojjam Zone public health facilities. The study participants were selected using a systematic sampling technique, and the data were collected through interviews and semi‐structured questionnaires. The data were entered into Epi‐data version 3.1 and exported to Stata version 17 for analysis. Variables with a p value of ≤ 0.25 in the bi‐variable logistic regression were used to identify factors associated with maternal dietary diversity. Finally, multivariate logistic regressions were done, and variables that showed p values of < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. The magnitude of minimum dietary diversity was 52.5% (95% CI: 47.5, 57.4). Women aged ≥ 34 years (AOR = 3.6, 95% CI: 1.1, 2.4), divorced women (AOR = 0.1, 95% CI: 0.0, 0.2), family size with ≥ 5 member (AOR = 0.4, 95% CI: 0.2, 0.8), able to read and write (AOR = 0.4, 95% CI: 0.2, 0.8), primary school education (AOR = 0.1, 95% CI: 0.0, 0.2), secondary school education (AOR = 0.1, 95% CI: 0.0, 0.2), government employees (AOR = 0.3, 95% CI: 0.1, 0.9), merchants (AOR = 0.1, 95% CI: 0.1, 0.4) and being women head of the household (AOR = 0.2, 95% CI: 0.1, 0.4) those are associated with minimum dietary diversity among pregnant women's. Compared to other earlier investigations, the intake of pregnant mothers with minimum dietary diversity was determined to be minimal. Head of household, family sizes of five or more, women's education, women's residency, and being over 34 years old were the variables that were found to be significantly correlated with minimum dietary diversity. As a result, to encourage maternal dietary diversity, nutrition education, and counseling services should be made available.