Magnitude of Poor Dietary Diversity and Associated Factors Among High School Adolescent Girls in Dire Dawa City, Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Adolescence, which lasts from the ages of 10 to 19 years, is a period of rapid growth, cognitive development, and reproductive health readiness. However, in urban areas such as Dire Dawa thedietarydiversityandcontributingfactorsof adolescentgirlshavereceivedlessattention.Therefore, this study was conducted with the major aims to assess the magnitude of poor dietary diversity and associated factors among high school adolescent girls in Dire Dawa, Eastern Ethiopia.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey using stratified multistage random sampling was conducted in February and March of 2025 on 517 high school girls in Dire Dawa ages 13 to 19. An FAO Minimum food Diversity for Women (MDD-W) style 24-hour food memory test was one of the questionnaires used to gather data and analyzed by SPSS version 26. We identified the factors associated with MDDs in bivariable and multivariable logistic regression. Adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was reported. A significance level of p<0.05 was applied. The findings were shown using 95% CIs for adjusted odds ratios (AOR).

Results: The results showed that, 274 (53%) of the high school girls (95% CI: 0.487-0.573) were able to achieve adequate dietary diversity. Adolescent girls aged 13–16 had significantly higher likelihood of eating inadequately compared to those aged 17–19 (AOR = 1.60; 95% CI: 1.04, 2.46; p=0.031). Students attending public schools were around four times more likely than those attending private schools to have inadequate dietary diversity (AOR = 3.95; 95% CI: 1.82, 8.57; p=0.001). The considerably higher likelihood of low dietary diversity for girls from homes without home gardens (AOR = 22.1; 95% CI: 10.5, 46.6; p<0.001) were significantly factors associated with minimum dietary diversity score.

Conclusion: The prevalence of poor dietary diversity was high in study area. Age group, school type, and home gardening were identified as factors associated with the dietary diversity of high school girls. These results emphasize the need of school based and community level initiatives that promote home gardening and target younger adolescents in public schools in order to enhance food choices and minimize nutritional deficiencies in this vulnerable population.