Original title: Health belief model constructs and sociodemographic factors associated with minimum meal frequency among children aged 6 to 23 months in Harar City, Eastern Ethiopia
The study looked at whether children in Harar City were fed often enough for their age and breastfeeding status. It surveyed caregivers at public health centers and compared feeding frequency with family circumstances and beliefs about child feeding. About six in ten children met the study’s minimum meal-frequency definition. Caregivers with greater confidence in feeding and stronger belief that a child could be at risk were more likely to report meeting it, though the study shows association, not cause.
Imagine packing lunch for a young child each day. You may have food at home, but still feel unsure about how often to offer it or whether you can keep up the routine. In this paper, the meals are the daily packing, while caregivers’ confidence and sense of risk are linked to whether children get meals often enough for their age.
Children in their first two years need frequent meals, but many in this study did not meet the recommended minimum. The findings point to more than food access: caregiver confidence and contact with postnatal care were also associated with feeding frequency, giving health services potential places to support families.
Because this was a cross-sectional study of caregivers attending three public health centers in Harar City, it cannot show that the associated factors caused more frequent feeding. The abstract does not establish whether the results apply to families outside these centers or to other locations.
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Health belief model constructs and sociodemographic factors associated with minimum meal frequency among children aged 6 to 23 months in Harar City, Eastern Ethiopia — Bereketabe Nega, Galana Mamo, Abdu Oumer — Discover Public Health — doi:10.1186/s12982-026-03067-7
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.