Dietary Diversity Practice And Associated Factors Among Pregnant Women In Ejere District, West Shoa Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia

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.