RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Title: Determinants of Minimum Acceptable Diet among 6–23 Months Age Children in Ethiopia: A Multilevel Analysis of The Ethiopian Demographic Health Survey JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 393678 DO 10.1101/393678 A1 abay, Aberash A1 Yemane, Dejen A1 Bekele, Abate A1 Meressa, Beyene YR 2018 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/08/16/393678.abstract AB Background Though infant and young children should be fed according to a minimum acceptable diet to ensure appropriate growth and development, only 7% of Ethiopian 6-23 months age children meet the minimum acceptable dietary standards, which is lower than the national target of 11% set for 2016. Therefore, this study aims to assess the individual and community level determinants of minimum acceptable diet among 6–23 months age children in Ethiopia.Methods This study analyzed retrospectively a cross-sectional data on a weighted sample of 2919 children aged 6-23 months nested within 617 clusters after extracting from Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey 2016 via the link www.measuredhs.com. By employing bi-variate multilevel logistic regression model, variables which were significant at the p-value < 25 were included in multivariable multilevel logistic regression analysis. Finally, variables with p-value < 0.05 were considered as significant predictors of minimum acceptable diet.Results Only 6.1% of 6-23 months age children feed minimum acceptable diet in Ethiopia. Children 18-23 months age (AOR=3.7, 95%CI 1.9, 7.2), father’s with secondary or higher education (AOR=2.1, 95%CI 1.2, 3.6), Employed mothers (AOR=1.7, 95%CI 1.2, 2.5), mothers have access to drinking water (AOR=1.9, 95%CI 1.2, 2.9), mothers with media exposure (AOR=2.1 95%CI 1.1, 2.7) were positive individual level predictors. Urban mothers (AOR=4.8, 95%CI 1.7, 13.2)) and agrarian dominant region (AOR=5.6, 95%CI 2.2, 14.5) were community level factors that significantly associated with minimum acceptable diet of 6–23 months age children.Conclusion Both individual and community level factors were significantly associated with minimum acceptable diet of 6-23 months age children in Ethiopia, suggesting that nutritional interventions designed to improve child health should not only be implemented at the individual level but tailored to community context as well.