Diet quality of children of age 6 to 23 months in rural Tanzania: Cross-sectional study using Global diet quality questionnaire

Background: Malnutrition among Tanzanian children under five years has been persistently high especially in the rural areas. There are limited studies that have assessed diet quality of the children. Besides, even those which have been reported most did not consider consumption of foods that are known to reduce the risk for diet related non-communicable diseases and those that increase the risk. This study aimed at assessing exposure to NCD-risk diets and associated factors among rural children of age 6 to 23 months in Mvomero district, Morogoro.Methodology: A cross-sectional study involved 512 mother/caretaker-child pairs. Participants were randomly selected from a list of households with children of age 6 to 23 months. Information on demographic characteristics, food purchasing and consumption behaviors were collected using structured questions and global diet quality questionnaire. Regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with NCD-risk and NCD-protect scores.Results: The majority of the respondents (55%) were of age below 25 years; 66% owned mobile phones and 42% had no formal education. Only about one in five children met the medium dietary diversity. Three percent of the children consumed eggs; 30% did not consume either fruits or vegetables and 27% consumed deep fried foods in a day preceding the interview. The mean NCD-protect score was 2.3±1.5 and the NCD-risk score was 0.6±0.9. Household income but not education of the mother was associated with NCD-risk, NCD-protect and medium dietary diversity scores.Conclusion and recommendation: The diet of the children was less diversified with low consumption of both NCD-protects and risk food groups. Promotion of consumption of diversified foods among children and choosing the correct messages and appropriate media to deliver the messages given the literacy level of the studied mothers/caretakers are crucial.