Vitamin A rich food consumption and its predictors among children aged 6 up to 23 months old in Ethiopia

Abstract

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a major public health concern in low-income countries, including Ethiopia. This study aimed to assess the weighted proportion of vitamin A-rich food consumption, trends, and predictors among children aged 6–23 months old in Ethiopia. This study used Ethiopian demographic and health survey and mini demographic and health survey (EDHS-2005–2016 and EMDHS-2019) data with a total weighted sample size of 8291 among children aged 6–23 months old. A multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression analysis was used to identify predictors of vitamin A-rich food consumption. The overall weighted proportion of vitamin A-rich food consumption among children aged 6–23 months was 31.31% (29.48%, 33.21%). In Ethiopia, the proportion of vitamin A-rich food consumption by children aged 6–23 months old increased from 23.24% (95% CI: 20.16, 26.64%) in EDHS 2005 to 25.45% (95% CI: 22.83, 28.25%) in EDHS 2011, and very sharply increased to 37.21% (33.89, 40.65%) in EDHS 2016 and slightly increased to 39.03% (34.18, 44.12%) in EDHS 2019. The findings revealed that individual-level: being 12–23 months old [AOR = 2.49, 95% CI: 1.92, 2.82], Protestant [AOR = 2.16, 95% CI: 1.67, 2.81], Muslim [AOR = 1.52, 95% CI: 1.18, 1.94], having mothers complete primary education [AOR = 1.58, 95% CI: 1.29, 1.93], secondary education [AOR = 2.15, 95% CI: 1.49, 3.08], higher education [AOR = 3.32, 95% CI: 1.77, 6.26], being middle wealth quintile [AOR = 1.41, 95% CI: 1.06, 1.87], richer [AOR = 1.57, 95% CI: 1.19, 2.07], richest [AOR = 2.03, 95% CI: 1.37, 3.01], having antenatal care visits greater than or equal to 4 [AOR = 1.42, 95% CI: 1.12, 1.79] and community-level: being dwellers of pastoral regions [AOR = 0.41, 95% CI: 0.31, 0.55]) were significantly associated with vitamin A rich food consumption among children aged 6–23 months old. The findings revealed that there was suboptimal vitamin A-rich food consumption among children aged 6–23 months old. Improving women’s literacy, economic empowerment, antenatal care visits, and addressing regional disparities will enhance vitamin A-rich food consumption in this age group. Further research, such as a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT), is warranted to obtain robust evidence.