Baffa Lemlem Daniel, Mengistu Berhanu, Desta Fikreab
Department of Human Nutrition, Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia.
Department of Public Health, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Goba Referral Hospital, Madda Walabu University, Bale Goba, Ethiopia.
Sci Rep. 2025 May 19;15(1):17282. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-02366-4.
Child malnutrition is a significant global burden, leaving millions of children malnourished. To mitigate this huge burden, child dietary diversity is used as one of the major interventions applied in the first two years of life. The adequate child dietary diversity in Ethiopia is only 8%, and the socioeconomic inequalities contributing to this low proportion are not well discovered. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the socioeconomic inequality in dietary diversity practice among children aged 6-23 months in Ethiopia. Secondary data obtained from the recent Ethiopian Mini Demographic Health Survey 2019 dataset was used. A total of 1610 weighted samples of children aged 6-23 months were included in the study. A two-stage stratified sampling technique was employed to select the study participants. STATA version 17.0 was used for coding and analysis. Erreygers normalized concentration index and concentration curve were used to assess the socioeconomic inequality in the dietary diversity practice of the children. Decomposition analysis was applied to identify factors contributing to socio-economic inequality. A P-value < 0.05 was used to declare the statistical significance of the factors. The Erreygers normalized concentration index was found to be 0.1005 with a standard error of 0.033 and a statistically significant p-value (p-value = 0.0026) and the concentration curve lay below the line of equality, showing that adequate dietary diversity practice is disproportionately concentrated among children from households with high socioeconomic status. The decomposition analysis showed that household wealth status (72.8%), educational status of the mother (20.6%), postnatal care (2.2%) were the statistically significant contributors to the pro-rich socioeconomic inequality of dietary diversity practice among the children. This study showed that there is a pro-rich socioeconomic inequality in dietary diversity practice among children aged 6-23 months in Ethiopia. Household wealth status, educational status of the mother, and postnatal care were identified as contributors to the occurrence of the inequality. Therefore, encouraging mothers to attend school and engaging households in income-generating activities is crucial to narrowing the inequality.
儿童营养不良是一项重大的全球负担，导致数百万儿童营养不良。为减轻这一巨大负担，儿童饮食多样性被用作生命最初两年的主要干预措施之一。埃塞俄比亚儿童充足的饮食多样性仅为8%，而造成这一低比例的社会经济不平等因素尚未得到充分揭示。因此，本研究旨在评估埃塞俄比亚6至23个月儿童饮食多样性实践中的社会经济不平等情况。使用了从最近的2019年埃塞俄比亚小型人口与健康调查数据集获得的二手数据。该研究共纳入了1610个6至23个月儿童的加权样本。采用两阶段分层抽样技术来选择研究参与者。使用STATA 17.0版本进行编码和分析。采用埃雷格斯标准化浓度指数和浓度曲线来评估儿童饮食多样性实践中的社会经济不平等情况。应用分解分析来确定导致社会经济不平等的因素。P值<0.05用于表明因素的统计学显著性。埃雷格斯标准化浓度指数为0.1005，标准误差为0.033，且具有统计学显著性的p值（p值=0.0026），浓度曲线位于平等线以下，表明充足的饮食多样性实践不成比例地集中在社会经济地位较高家庭的儿童中。分解分析表明，家庭财富状况（72.8%）、母亲的教育程度（20.6%）、产后护理（2.2%）是导致儿童饮食多样性实践中有利于富裕阶层的社会经济不平等的统计学显著因素。本研究表明，埃塞俄比亚6至23个月儿童的饮食多样性实践中存在有利于富裕阶层的社会经济不平等。家庭财富状况、母亲的教育程度和产后护理被确定为不平等发生的促成因素。因此，鼓励母亲上学并让家庭参与创收活动对于缩小不平等至关重要。
