Association between household food security and infant feeding practices among women with children aged 6–23 months in rural Zambia

Infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices directly affect the nutritional status of children under two years of age, ultimately impacting their survival. However, ensuring that newborns and young children are fed according to the WHO-recommended practice has proven to be a challenge in many developing nations, especially in households that face food insecurity. This study aims to determine the association between IYCF practices and household food security’s availability and access dimensions in rural Zambia. The study uses data from a cross-sectional survey of 2,127 mother-child pairs drawn from 28 rural districts in 8 out of the 10 Zambian provinces. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association of minimum dietary diversity, minimum meal frequency, and minimum acceptable diet with measures of household food security such as household dietary diversity score, and food insecurity experience scale, while controlling for confounding variables. The results show that children living in households classified as being food-secure based on the household dietary diversity score were significantly more likely to achieve appropriate feeding practices on all three IYCF measures, even after controlling for confounding factors. Notably, poor IYCF practices exist even in food-secure households, as most children in these households still need to receive a minimum acceptable diet. Although living in a household classified as food secure based on the access dimensions of household dietary diversity score and food insecurity experience scale is significantly associated with improvements in all three IYCF indicators even after controlling for confounding factors, the relationship does not hold for the availability measure of months of adequate household food provisioning. These findings highlight the need for targeting specific dimensions of household food security to solve child malnutrition, especially in rural areas. The focus should go beyond basic food availability, ensuring adequate diversity, and enhancing knowledge of appropriate feeding practices.