Socio-demographic characteristics of mothers and complementary feeding practices among children aged 6 to 23 months in North Central Burkina Faso

Abstract

Inadequate feeding practices have a negative impact on children's health and growth during the first two years of life and increase their risk of undernutrition, morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with complementary feeding practices of children in a context of internal displacement in the Centre-North region of Burkina Faso. A community-based, descriptive and analytical cross-sectional household survey was conducted in the urban centre of Kaya. The cluster sampling method was used to select 197 mother-child pairs aged 6 to 23 months. Sociodemographic, health and child feeding practices data were collected from questionnaires administered to mothers. Analysis was performed using STATA 13 software. Descriptive analyses and binary logic regression were performed with a 95% confidence interval. In the present study, only a quarter of children aged 6 to 23 months have minimal dietary diversity, 17,8 % have achieved a minimum acceptable diet. The minimum meal frequency is 60.1% for all children. The practice of minimum dietary diversity of children aged 12 to 23 months is 2.8 times higher than that of children in the 6 to 8 months and 9 to 11 months age groups (OR=2.8; p=0.001) with a more acceptable minimum meal frequency. This study found that factors such as large household size (OR= 3.57; p=0.007), mother's residence in a rural area (OR= 2.8; p=0.004) and mother's low education level (OR= 1.8; p=0.045), mother's marital status (OR=2.3; p=0.015) and caregiver negatively influence children's complementary feeding practices. Adequate complementary feeding practices are still a concern in the study area and require the implementation of intervention strategies based mainly on nutritional education of mothers, taking into account the socio-cultural context of populations.