ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1563392
Daily meal frequency and its associated factors among children aged 6-23 months in Ethiopia: A Bayesian hierarchical Poisson model
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Public Health, College of Medical and Health Science, Samara University, Samara, Ethiopia
- 2Department of Nursing, College of Medicine and health sciences, Samara University, Samara, Ethiopia, Samara, Ethiopia
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Background: Evidence on the rate of daily meal frequency (DMF) among infants and young children at the national level is crucial for developing targeted interventions to improve feeding practices. Hence, this study aimed to identify factors associated with the rate of daily meal frequency (DMF) among children aged 6–23 months in Ethiopia.Methods: We retrieved secondary data from the Kids Record (KR) of the Ethiopian Mini Demographic and Health Survey (MDHS) dataset. A Bayesian hierarchical Poisson model was employed. The data were analyzed via R software version 4.3.1.Results: The mean and standard deviation of the DMF were 3.36 and 1.60, respectively. The rate of DMF was 1.17 times greater (AIRR = 1.17, 95% CrI: 0.997, 1.381) in children whose mothers had a secondary/higher educational level than in those whose mothers had no education. Kids currently being breastfed have a lower rate of DMF (AIRR = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.798, 0.979) by 10% than those who are not currently breastfeeding. Compared with children between the ages of 6-8 months, those between 9-11 months (AIRR = 1.55, 95% CrI: 1.374, 1.754), 12-17 months (AIRR = 1.72, 95% CrI: 1.543, 1.911), and 18-23 months (AIRR = 95% CrI: 1.90 (1.692, 2.125)) had 55%, 72%, and 90% higher rates of DMF, respectively. In the Afar region (IRR = 0.77, 95% CI: 0.615, 0.982), Somalia (AIRR = 0.83, 95% CrI: 0.682, 1.01), Benishangul (AIRR = 0.8, 95% CrI: 0.639, 0.994), Southern Nation Nationality and People’s Region (SNNPR) (AIRR = 0.73, 95% CrI: 0.596, 0.894), and AIRR = 0.73, 95% CrI: 0.572, 0.925) decrease the daily meal frequency by 33%, 17%, 20%, 27%, and 27%, respectively, compared with that of children from Tigray.Conclusion and recommendation: The rate of DMF was low in Ethiopia and exhibited a significant clustering pattern across the country. These findings stress the need for tailored interventions addressing regional inequities, promoting age-specific nutrition, supporting maternal education, and empowering working women to improve children's nutritional intake.
Keywords: Associated factors, Bayesian hierarchical model, children 6--23 months, Daily meal frequency, Ethiopia
Received: 06 Feb 2025; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Asgedom, Mohammed and Anbesu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Dejen Kahsay Asgedom, Department of Public Health, College of Medical and Health Science, Samara University, Samara, Ethiopia
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