What’s happening in the kitchen? - The influence of nutritional knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP), and kitchen characteristics on women’s dietary quality in Ethiopia

Q: What was the purpose of the study in Ethiopia?

To assess how nutritional knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP), along with kitchen characteristics, influence women’s dietary quality in Ethiopia.

Q: Which factors were found to be associated with women’s dietary quality?

Nutritional knowledge and attitude were positively associated with dietary diversity and mean nutrient adequacy ratio. Cooking time and the propensity to prepare new foods were also positively associated with dietary diversity and minimum dietary diversity.

Sep 4, 2026

Upload by Ava Thompson

Low dietary quality drives major public health risks in low-income settings, with women and children facing elevated malnutrition vulnerability due to limited access to adequate nutrition. This study assessed how nutritional knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP), together with kitchen characteristics, shape women’s dietary quality in Ethiopia. A population-based cross-sectional survey (Aug–Sep 2022) used multistage stratified cluster sampling and included 1,980 women aged 15–49 years. Poisson, logistic, and OLS regressions identified key determinants of dietary quality.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background

Method

Results

Conclusion

Keywords

Background

Yalew et al. BMC Nutrition (2025) 11:18 BMC Nutrition [https://doi.org/10.1186/s40795-025-00991-w](https://doi.org/10.1186/s40795-025-00991-w) RESEARCH Open Access What’s happening in the kitchen? The influence of nutritional knowledge, attitudes and, practices (KAP), and kitchen characteristics on women’s dietary quality in Ethiopia Temesgen Awoke Yalew 1,2*, MasreshaTessema 1 and Edward Lahiff2 Abstract Background Low dietary quality significantly contributes to public health risks in low-income countries. This situation is particularly concerning for vulnerable groups, such as women and children, who are at increased risk of malnutrition due to inadequate access to proper nutrition. This study aimed to assess the influence of nutritionrelated knowledge, attitudes, and practices, and kitchen characteristics on women’s dietary quality in Ethiopia. Method A population-based cross-sectional survey was conducted from August to September 2022 in five regions and two city administrations in Ethiopia. A multistage stratified cluster sampling method was employed. From ninety-nine enumeration areas, twenty eligible households were selected. A total of 1,980 women aged 15–49 years were included in this survey. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire about socio-demographic characteristics, food frequency, 24-hour dietary recall, and nutrition-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices. The determinants of dietary quality were identified using Poisson, logistic, and ordinary least square regression analyses. Variables with a p-value less than 0.05 were considered to indicate statistical significance. Results The results showed that the average dietary diversity score for women was 3.4 ± 0.85. Only 21. 5% of the participants achieved the minimum dietary diversity for women (MDD-W), and the mean adequacy ratio for nutrients was 61 . 6% . The participants’ average nutrition-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices scores were 63%, 39%, and 23%, respectively. The regression analysis showed knowledge and attitude positively associated with dietary diversity and the mean nutrient adequacy ratio (P < 0. 01) . Cooking time and propensity to prepare new food were also positively associated with dietary diversity and with minimum dietary diversity (P < 0. 01) . Conclusion Our study showed that good nutrition-related knowledge and a positive attitude toward nutrition positively and significantly influence dietary quality, along with cooking time and the propensity to prepare new foods. *Correspondence: Temesgen Awoke Yalew [121126838@umail. ucc.ie](121126838@umail. ucc.ie); [tyalew@ucc.ie](tyalew@ucc.ie) Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit [http://creati](http://creati)[vecommons.org/l](vecommons.org/l)icenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Yalew et al. BMC Nutrition (2025) 11:18 Page 2 of 12 Keywords Nutritional KAP, Kitchen, Food consumption, Dietary diversity, Nutrient intake, Ethiopia Background A

FAQs

What was the purpose of the study in Ethiopia?

To assess how nutritional knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP), along with kitchen characteristics, influence women’s dietary quality in Ethiopia.

How was the survey conducted and who participated?

A population-based cross-sectional survey was conducted from August to September 2022, using multistage stratified cluster sampling. It included 1,980 women aged 15–49 years from five regions and two city administrations.

Which factors were found to be associated with women’s dietary quality?

Nutritional knowledge and attitude were positively associated with dietary diversity and mean nutrient adequacy ratio. Cooking time and the propensity to prepare new foods were also positively associated with dietary diversity and minimum dietary diversity.

Sep 4, 2026

Upload by Ava Thompson