Abstract
BACKGROUND: Unhealthy food consumption is associated with a higher risk of diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. It can affect the health of the child and the mother herself when it is consumed by women of reproductive age. Designing successful health interventions to lessen the impact of non-communicable diseases requires an understanding of the magnitude and determinants of unhealthy food consumption. Therefore, this study is intended to assess the prevalence and determinants of unhealthy food consumption among women of reproductive age using the 2023–2024 Lesotho Demographic and Health Survey dataset. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted using data from the 2023–2024 Lesotho Demographic and Health Survey. A total of 6,413 women aged 15 to 49 years were included in the study. Using STAT Version 14 software, the data were extracted, cleaned, and analyzed. A multilevel logistic regression analysis was used to determine the factors associated with unhealthy food consumption. Finally, variables with a p-value < 0.05 were declared statistically significant. RESULTS: The magnitude of unhealthy food consumption among women aged 15–49 years in Lesotho was 31.98% (95% CI: 30.85, 33.13). Age of women [AOR = 2.60; 95% CI (2.10, 3.22)], educational status [AOR = 0.63; 95% CI (0.54, 0.74)], current marital status [AOR = 1.38; 95% CI (1.21, 1.57)], working status [AOR = 0.69; 95% CI (0.61, 0.79)], media exposure [AOR = 0.80; 95% CI (0.68, 0.94)], wealth status [AOR = 0.54; 95% CI (0.43, 0.66)], and community literacy [AOR = 0.62; 95% CI (0.46, 0.83)] were significantly associated with unhealthy food consumption. CONCLUSION: Nearly one in three women aged 15–19 years in Lesotho consumed unhealthy foods. Younger, highly educated, unmarried, wealthier, working, and media-exposed women had higher odds of unhealthy food consumption. Therefore, it is recommended to develop policies that pursue decreasing consumption of unhealthy foods with the implementation of interventions that target younger, highly educated, unmarried, rich, and working women.