Empowering women for improved dietary diversification during pregnancy: Longitudinal study in Ethiopia

Dietary diversification, the consumption of various food groups, is essential to meet the increased nutritional demands of pregnant women. However, inadequate dietary diversification is a prevalent concern in developing countries, including Ethiopia, with studies showing low levels of dietary diversification among pregnant women, mainly because of low socioeconomic empowerment. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the minimum dietary diversification and associated factors among pregnant women in the city of Jimma, Ethiopia. A facility-based longitudinal study was conducted among pregnant women attending antenatal care follow-up at Jimma City public health facilities. Data were collected from January 2023 to January 2024, using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. The collected data were entered in to Epi-Data Manager version 4.2 and exported to SPSS version 26 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariable binary logistic regression analyzes were used. 420 pregnant women participated in the study consistently with a response rate of 99.05 %. The prevalence of minimum dietary diversification was 37.9 %. Factors associated with achieving adequate dietary diversification among pregnant women include higher income, participation in household decision making (AOR = 1.84; 95 % CI: 1.16–2.89) and higher levels of education. Conversely, pregnant women who accepted being beaten by their intimate partner were 59 % less likely to meet the minimum dietary diversification standard. The study found that most pregnant women did not meet the minimum dietary diversification standard. The empowerment of women's socio-economic status—through education, increased income, reduced acceptance of intimate partner violence, and participation in household decision-making—was significantly associated with dietary diversification among pregnant women. Therefore, any program aiming to intervene in maternal nutrition should consider these factors.