Mothers’ Values and Food Choices for their Infants and Young Children and the Association with the Dietary Diversity in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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2017-12
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Abstract
Background: Among the factors which affect Infants and Young Children (IYC) feeding practice, mothers’ values for food choices are crucial. Mothers’ food choice may depend on the value of the food for health, mental development, weight, nutritional content and cost of the food. There is limited evidence on mothers’ values for food choice of their IYC and their association with dietary diversity. Objective: To evaluate the value mothers give for health, mental development, weight, nutritional content and cost of food when choosing food for their IYC from 6-23 months and its association with the dietary diversity, in Addis Ababa. Method: A community based cross - sectional study was conducted from March 04 - April 22, 2017 in Addis Ababa. We used a multi stage sampling technique and included 605 mothers of index child (6-23 months). Data were collected by using structured and pretested questionnaire that include mothers’ values (health, mental development, weight, nutritional content of food and cost of food) for choosing their IYC food using Likert scale and 24 hours dietary recall prior to interview. Data was entered to Epi_data version 3.1 then exported to stata/se 14.0 for analysis. The factors which had association with dietary diversity in the bivariate analysis and mothers’ values were considered for multivariate analysis to evaluate the association between mothers’ values and the dietary diversity. Result: It was observed that 58.4% of mothers either strongly or moderately scored the five values (health, mental development, weight, nutritional content of food and cost of food). From the rating of mothers’ values, a highest mean value of 3.23 was found for health followed by mental development with a mean value of 3.13. In this study, 61.5% of mothers practiced minimum dietary diversity. From the multivariate analysis result, mothers’ values for health and mental development while choosing food for their IYC were significantly associated with the minimum dietary diversity having AOR[CI] of 4.39[1.34, 14.39] and 4.29[1.25, 16.45], respectively. Mothers’ either strong or moderate score for the five values as a whole was significantly associated with the minimum dietary diversity of their IYC.
Conclusion: Mothers’ food choice for their IYC was found to depend on the value they give for health, mental development, weight, nutritional content of food and cost of food. Mothers’ strong/moderate score for health and mental development values were found to be predictors of dietary diversity. Increasing the awareness of mothers on the food values when choosing food for their IYC, can be one way of improving dietary diversity feeding practice.
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Mothers’ food choice