Minimum Dietary Diversity Among the Lactating Mothers: New Evidence from Upper Assam in North-East India

Daily dietary habits of mothers have a major impact on both their own and their children’s overall growth and development during lactation, as well as lowering the likelihood of unfavorable birth outcomes when the focus shifts to the first 1,000 days of life. This community-based cross-sectional study aimed to assess the prevalence of minimum dietary diversity (MDD) in lactating mothers aged 17–39 years from the Mishing tribe in two districts of Upper Assam. MDD for women was determined by using indicator and scoring guide provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and FHI 360 (2016, Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women: A Guide to Measurement). MDD is an indicator of micronutrient sufficiency in daily diets and is particularly significant due to high rates of maternal undernutrition and anemia in Assam. The study included 361 lactating mothers and used a predesigned semi-structured interview schedule to collect data on socio-demographic and maternal variables, knowledge and practices on nutrition, and maternal health care service utilization. Data were summarized with descriptive statistics and multivariable logistic regression to predict the association between dependent and independent variables. Results showed that MDD was substantially associated with current age, education and occupation, socio-economic status (SES), antenatal care (ANC) visits, anemic conditions, current nutritional status, and nutritional knowledge. The mean MDD score was 5.35, and slightly over half of lactating mothers who had adequate recommended minimum dietary intake were deficient in non-staple food groups like vitamin A-rich fruits, dairy, eggs, nuts, and seeds. Most underweight and anemic mothers had inadequate dietary diversity, unaware of tri-color foods, because the tiranga bhojan approach is yet to gain popularity in Assam. The study pointed that mothers may benefit from varied dietary counseling when visiting a primary health center (PHC) for ANC utilization as those who completed four recommended ANC visits were 6 times more likely to had adequate MDD than those who never utilized ANC facilities in their last pregnancy (AOR: 6.03, 95% CI [2.97–12.08]) ensuring nutrition-specific intervention among the lactating mothers.