Abstract
Children who do not consume enough iron have decreased growth, reduced immunity, and poor cognitive development. This study aimed to assess the pooled iron-rich food consumption, trends, and predictors among children aged 6-59 months old in Ethiopia. This study used Ethiopian demographic and health survey (EDHS-2005-2016) data with a total weighted sample size of 26,773 among children aged 6-59 months old. A multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression analysis was used to identify predictors of good iron-rich food consumption. The pooled proportion of iron-rich food consumed among children aged 6-59 months in Ethiopia was 11.77% (10.71, 12.92%). In Ethiopia, the proportion of iron-rich food intake by children aged 6-59 months was slightly increased from 9.25% (8.04, 10.62%) in EDHS 2005 to 10.86% (9.06, 12.95%) in EDHS 2011, and sharply increased to 17.49% (15.04, 20.24%) in EDHS 2016. The findings indicated that being children born to mothers aged 20 to 34 years old [AOR = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.35, 0.89], mothers aged ≥ 35 years old [AOR = 0.47, 95% CI: 0.28, 0.82], married parents [AOR = 1.68, 95% CI: 1.14, 2.48], completed primary education [AOR = 1.32, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.73], secondary education [AOR = 2.66, 95% CI: 1.53, 4.59], a higher education status of mother [AOR = 3.98, 95% CI: 1.92, 8.23], medium family [AOR = 1.39, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.89], rich family [AOR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.09, 1.95], media exposure [AOR = 1.35, 95% CI: 1.06, 1.72], residents of the Tigray [AOR = 2.69, 95% CI: 1.51, 4.79], Oromia [AOR = 3.30, 95% CI: 1.30, 4.02], Benishangul [AOR = 2.12, 95% CI: 1.15, 3.88], Gambela [AOR = 5.85, 95% CI: 2.97, 11.50], and Dire Dawa region [AOR = 3.38, 95% CI: 1.76, 6.47], were significantly associated with good iron-rich food consumption among children aged 6-59 months old. The findings revealed that iron-rich food intake was considerably low among Ethiopian children aged 6-59 months. Increasing women's literacy and economic empowerment improves iron-rich food consumption among children aged 6-59 months old.