Behavior Change Interventions Delivered through Interpersonal Communication, Agricultural Activities, Community Mobilization, and Mass Media Increase Complementary Feeding Practices and Reduce Child Stunting in Ethiopia.

Background: Appropriate infant and young child feeding practices are critical for optimal child growth and development, but in Ethiopia, complementary feeding (CF) practices are very poor. Alive & Thrive (A&T) provided intensive behavior change interventions through 4 platforms: interpersonal communication (IPC), nutrition-sensitive agricultural activities (AG), community mobilization (CM), and mass media (MM).

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of A&T intensive compared with nonintensive interventions (standard nutrition counseling and agricultural extension service and less intensive CM and MM) on CF practices and knowledge and child anthropometric outcomes.

Maternal behavioural determinants and livestock ownership are associated with animal source food consumption among young children during fasting in rural Ethiopia.

Religious fasting often involves abstention from animal source foods (ASFs). Although children are exempt, their diets are influenced by the widespread fasting practices. This study investigated the factors influencing ASF consumption among young children during the Lent fasting period in western Amhara, Ethiopia.

Nutritional Status and Effect of Maternal Employment among Children Aged 6-59 Months in Wolayta Sodo Town, Southern Ethiopia: A Cross-sectional Study.

Background: Childhood malnutrition remains common in many parts of the world; the magnitude of worldwide stunting, underweight and wasting in children under five years of age were 24.7 %, 15.1 % and 7.

Exposure to Large-Scale Social and Behavior Change Communication Interventions Is Associated with Improvements in Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices in Ethiopia.

Optimal breastfeeding (BF) practices in Ethiopia are far below the government's targets, and complementary feeding practices are poor. The Alive & Thrive initiative aimed to improve infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices through large-scale implementation of social and behavior change communication interventions in four regions of Ethiopia. The study assessed the effects of the interventions on IYCF practices and anthropometry over time in two regions-Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region and Tigray.

Predictors of dietary diversity in children ages 6 to 23 mo in largely food-insecure area of South Wollo, Ethiopia.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the level and predictors of dietary diversity (DD) in predominantly food-insecure area of South Wollo, Ethiopia among children ages 6 to 23 mo.

Methods: The study was conducted in October 2014. We selected 2080 children using a multistage sampling technique.

Context for food-based approaches for improved feeding of infants and children in Ethiopia.

Background: Regardless of efforts by the health sector and partner organizations, maternal and child malnutrition is still a challenge in Ethiopia.

Objective: To describe the context of current infant and child feeding patterns in Ethiopia.

Methods: Feeding patterns, diet content and quality, and nutritional outcomes and feeding practices of mothers of young children are described from literature review of a number of field studies.

Consumption of vitamin A rich foods and dark adaptation threshold of pregnant women at Damot Sore District, Wolayita, Southern Ethiopia.

Background: More than 7.2 million pregnant women in developing countries suffer from vitamin A deficiency. The objective of this study was to assess dark adaptation threshold of pregnant women and related socio-demographic factors in Damot Sore District, Wolayita Zone, Southern Ethiopia.

Strengthiening systems to support mothers in infant and young child feeding at scale.

Background: Systems strengthening is essential for implementation of large-scale nutrition interventions, including infant and young child feeding (IYCF), since rapid geographic expansion places additional burdens on service delivery systems.

Objective: To document approaches for building capacity and supporting programs to scale up IYCF counseling in three different country contexts.

Methods: Situational assessments, stakeholder consultations, formative research, household and frontline health worker surveys, other related studies, and program monitoring in three countries identified gaps and opportunities for strengthening IYCF service delivery.

Willingness to pay for lipid-based nutrient supplements for young children in four urban sites of Ethiopia.

Malnutrition in children under 5 years of age is pervasive in Ethiopia across all wealth quintiles. The objective of this study was to determine the willingness to pay (WTP) for a week's supply of Nutributter® (a lipid-based nutrient supplement, or LNS) through typical urban Ethiopian retail channels. In February, 2012, 128 respondents from 108 households with 6-24-month-old children had the opportunity to sample Nutributter® for 2 days in their homes as a complementary food.

Nutritional status and cognitive performance of mother-child pairs in Sidama, Southern Ethiopia.

The purpose of this study was to assess the nutritional status and cognitive performance of women and their 5-year-old children using a cross-sectional design. Cognitive performance of mothers and children was assessed with Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices (CPM) and Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children-II (KABC-II). Demographic characteristics, food consumption patterns and anthropometry were also measured.

A 24-h recall does not provide a valid estimate of absolute nutrient intakes for rural women in southern Ethiopia.

Objective: To investigate the relative validity of a multiple-pass interactive 24-h recall (24-HR) for assessing nutrient intakes of a group of rural Ethiopian women.

Methods: Dietary intakes from a 24-HR were compared with weighed record (WR) intakes collected on the same day for 58 women of child-bearing age from three subsistence farming communities in Sidama. The impact of memory lapses, use of average recipe data, and inaccurate portion size estimates on 24-HR intakes was also assessed.

Iodine status and cognitive function of women and their five year-old children in rural Sidama, southern Ethiopia.

Objective: Iodine deficiency is one of the most common micronutrient deficiencies worldwide and is a major cause of preventable mental retardation. The purpose of this study was to assess the iodine status and cognitive function of women of childbearing age and their five-year-old children.

Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a rural village in southern Ethiopia.

Inadequate feeding practices and impaired growth among children from subsistence farming households in Sidama, Southern Ethiopia.

Whether current child feeding practices and behaviours among rural households in Sidama, Southern Ethiopia conform to the World Health Organization (WHO) guiding principles for complementary feeding is uncertain. We assessed socio-demographic status, anthropometry, breastfeeding, complementary feeding practices and behaviours, and motor development milestones in a convenience sample of 97 breastfed children aged 6-23 months from three rural Sidama communities. Energy and nutrient intakes from complementary foods were also calculated from 1-day in-home weighed records.

Growth and Visual Information Processing in Infants in Southern Ethiopia.

Speed of information processing and recognition memory can be assessed in infants using a visual information processing (VIP) paradigm. In a sample of 100 infants 6-8 months of age from Southern Ethiopia, we assessed relations between growth and VIP. The 69 infants who completed the VIP protocol had a mean weight z score of -1.

Zinc, gravida, infection, and iron, but not vitamin B-12 or folate status, predict hemoglobin during pregnancy in Southern Ethiopia.

The etiology of anemia during pregnancy in rural Southern Ethiopia is uncertain. Intakes of animal-source foods are low and infections and bacterial overgrowth probably coexist. We therefore measured the dietary intakes of a convenience sample of Sidama women in late pregnancy who consumed either maize (n = 68) or fermented enset (Enset ventricosum) (n = 31) as their major energy source.

Inadequate intakes of dietary zinc among pregnant women from subsistence households in Sidama, Southern Ethiopia.

Objective: To assess the prevalence of zinc inadequacy based on dietary intakes and plasma zinc concentrations and, simultaneously, the prevalence of inadequate intakes of energy, protein, calcium and iron.

Design: A cross-sectional study of a convenience sample of subsistence farming households in Sidama, Southern Ethiopia.

Subjects: Dietary intakes were calculated from 1-day weighed food records and 40 repeats from 99 pregnant women in the third trimester using analysed values of major staple foods for zinc, iron, calcium and phytate.

Zinc absorption during late pregnancy in rural southern Ethiopia.

Background: Little is yet known about zinc absorption in late pregnancy, and no information on absorption from the total diet is available.

Objective: The objective was to measure the fractional absorption of zinc (FAZ) and to estimate the total quantity of absorbed zinc (TAZ) each day during the third trimester of pregnancy in poor rural southern Ethiopian women.

Design: The participants (n = 17) were a convenience sample from a larger study population.