Does Dietary Diversity Predict the Nutritional Status of Adolescent in Jimma Zone, South West Ethiopia?

Abstract

Back ground.Dietary diversity is an aspect of dietary quality that indicates general nutritional adequacy.Malnutrition in adolescence is a major public health problem in the world, especially in developing countries leading to low bone mass, disability and reduced ability to learn and work at maximum productivity. There is limited knowledge in the area of dietary diversity and factors affecting adolescents despite evidence showing that adolescent nutrition has important direct and/or indirect consequences. There is no study that documented the association between dietary diversity and nutritional status of adolescents in Ethiopia. Objective: The study was aimed to assess the association between dietary diversity and nutritional status of adolescents. Methods: Data for this study were obtained from the baseline of a five years longitudinal survey that conducted in Jimma Zone, Southwest Ethiopia generated by the baseline survey of Jimma Longitudinal Family survey of youth conducted from 2005-2006 after getting permission. Anthropometric and socio-demographic data were captured from 2084 adolescents representing 3700 randomly selected households. Dietary data were collected using food frequency questionnaire spanning a period of one month before the survey. Anthropometric measurements were used to measure mid upper arm circumference, weight and height of the study participants. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to determine the association between dietary diversity and nutritional status after controlling for potential confounders. Result: Data from a total of 2084 (1025 female and 1059 male adolescents) involved in the baseline survey were used for this analyses. The overall prevalence of stunting and thinness were 26.1% and 22.3%, respectively.Stunting was higher among female (23.8%) than male (21.9%). while thinness was higher among males (27.5%) than female (25.3%). On multivariable logistic regression model after adjusting for other variables, being from rural area (AOR=0.687, 95% CI=0.514, 0.919), male sex adolescent (AOR =1.981, 95% CI=1.602, 2.449), households food insecurity (AOR =0.774, 95% CI=0.624, 0.958) and dietary diversity (AOR =1.295, 95% CI=1.006, 1.668) were significantly associated with nutritional status of stunting. Whereas, place of residence (AOR=1.678, 95% CI= 1.265, 2.225), households food insecurity (AOR=0.790, 95% CI=0.635, 0.984), and high workloads (AOR=0.666, 95% CI=0.501, 0.884) of adolescents were significantly associated with thinness, respectively.4 In conclusion thinness and stunting are prevalent nutritional problems among adolescents and dietary diversity is an independent predictor. The findings reflect socio-demographic and economic characteristics are associated with underweight and stunting.Therefore, programs to support adequate nutrition for adolescents should target improving their dietary diversity to reduce the prevalence of stunting and thinness, especially in the rural areas.