Bazezew Kidist, Worku Walelegn, Abebe Zegeye
University of Gondar Specialized Hospital , Gondar, Ethiopia.
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety, Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar , Gondar, Ethiopia.
Ecol Food Nutr. 2020 May-Jun;59(3):329-341. doi: 10.1080/03670244.2020.1733994. Epub 2020 Mar 4.
The time of introduction and nutritionally adequate, safe, age-appropriate complementary feeding is extremely important for the child's optimal growth, development, and health within the first 2 years of life. Despite a number of interventions to improve infant and young child feeding practices and nutritional status, appropriate feeding practices are far away from the recommendation. Therefore, the study aimed to assess timely initiation of complementary feeding practices and associated factors among children aged 6-23 months in Gondar town, northwest Ethiopia.
A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in December 2017. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select 632 mother-child pairs. Pretested structured and interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Data were entered into Epi-info version 7 and transferred to SPSS version 20.0 for analysis. Both bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analysis were used to identify factors associated with timely initiation of complementary feeding. Finally, variables with a -value of <0.05 were considered as statistically significant.
The prevalence of timely initiation of complementary feeding was 47.3% (95%CI: 43.0, 51.3). Being housewife in maternal occupation (AOR = 2.03, 95%CI: 1.21, 3.43), good mother's knowledge about complementary feeding (AOR = 1.80, 95% CI: 1.28, 2.53) and attending post-natal care checkup (AOR = 3.90, 95%CI: 1.26, 12.04) were significantly associated with timely initiation of complementary feeding.
This study revealed that timely initiation of complementary feeding was low within the study area. Around half of the children started complementary feeding at their 6 months of age. Therefore, special emphasis should be given to mothers who have poor knowledge about complementary feeding and encourage all mothers to have postnatal follow-up is crucial.
适时引入营养充足、安全且适合年龄的辅食，对于儿童在生命最初2年内实现最佳生长、发育和健康极为重要。尽管采取了多项干预措施来改善婴幼儿喂养方式和营养状况，但适当的喂养方式仍远未达到推荐标准。因此，本研究旨在评估埃塞俄比亚西北部贡德尔镇6至23个月儿童辅食添加的适时性及其相关因素。
2017年12月开展了一项基于社区的横断面研究。采用多阶段抽样技术选取632对母婴。使用经过预测试的结构化且由访谈员实施的问卷收集数据。数据录入Epi-info 7版本，并转移至SPSS 20.0版本进行分析。采用双变量和多变量逻辑回归分析来确定与适时添加辅食相关的因素。最后，P值<0.05的变量被视为具有统计学意义。
适时添加辅食的患病率为47.3%（95%置信区间：43.0, 51.3）。母亲职业为家庭主妇（比值比=2.03，95%置信区间：1.21, 3.43）、母亲对辅食添加有良好认知（比值比=1.80，95%置信区间：1.28, 2.53）以及接受产后护理检查（比值比=3.90，95%置信区间：1.26, 12.04）与适时添加辅食显著相关。
本研究表明，研究区域内辅食添加的适时性较低。约一半的儿童在6个月大时开始添加辅食。因此，应特别关注那些对辅食添加知识了解不足的母亲，并鼓励所有母亲进行产后随访，这至关重要。
