Abstract:
Background: The quantity of various foods or food groups ingested over a specified reference
period is referred to as dietary diversity. A study in Ethiopia indicated that a majority of women
rely on monotonous food groups and there is limited data regarding the dietary diversity practice
including the study area.
Objective: To assess dietary diversity practice and associated factors among pregnant women
attending antenatal care at a public health facility in Ejere district, West Shoa, Oromia, Ethiopia,
2022.
Methods: A facility based cross-sectional study design was conducted from July 21, 2022, to
Sept. 20, 2022. The study used systematic random sampling techniques to select 399 pregnant
women. For data collection, a pre-tested structured questionnaire was utilized. The collected data
were entered in Epi data v.3.1, then exported and analysed using SPSS v.26 software and
MAXQDA software used for qualitative data. Descriptive statistics were used to explore the data.
Binary Logistic regression model was used to assess the association, and variables with P-value
<0.25 were entered into multivariable logistic regression. A P-value of <0.05 is used to declare a
statistically significant.
Result: A total of 399 pregnant women were participated in the study and the mean age of the
respondents were 27.07 ± 4.59 years. The adequate dietary diversity practice of pregnant women
was (37.6%) 95% CI (30.4%, 43%). The most consumed food group was starchy staples 385
(96.5%) and the least consumed food groups were any foods from nuts 63 (15.8%), meat 62
(15.5%), and other fruit 59 (14.8%). The study found that, some variables were significantly
associated with the dietary diversity practice of pregnant women. These variables include
educational level of primary school (AOR: 3.20, 95% CI: 1.03, 9.99), having a home garden
(AOR: 4.21, 95% CI: 1.74, 10.20), being in the food-secured household (AOR: 4.17, 95% CI:
1.13, 15.32), having large livestock (AOR: 4.54, 95% CI: 2.14, 7.06), and having nutritional
counselling (AOR=4.49, 95% CI: 2.13-5.21)
Conclusion and Recommendation: The magnitude of dietary diversity practice among pregnant
women was found to be low in the study area. Variables which indicate awareness and economic
status of participants such as, having formal educational, having home gardening, ownership of
livestock, having nutritional counselling, having bank saving account, distance from market and
household food security were identified as factors associated with dietary diversity practice of
pregnant women. Therefore, attention should be given to improve the awareness of the pregnant
women and their economic status.
