The determinant of National Vitamin A supplementation in Ethiopia: A Multilevel Logistic Regression Analysis

Background: Vitamin A deficiency is a public health problem in many low-income countries including Ethiopia. Globally, the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency is estimated to be 190 million among children under-five age causing one up to two million deaths annually.Its periodic supply is a major intervention program to reduce the morbidity, mortality, and blindness among the children in Ethiopia. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine associated factors of national vitamin A supplementationamong children aged 6-59 monthsusing the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey Data. Methods: A population based cross-sectional study design wasperformed to determine factors associated with the vitamin A supplyamong children aged between 6 and 59 monthswithin the last six months before the start of the survey. A univariateanalysis, bivariate analysis, binary logistic regression, and generalized linear mixed effect model were appliedto analyze the data. Results: After adjusting for covariates; the odds of taking vitamin A supply were 1.3 times, 1.7 times, and 1.8 times higher among the women who had two, three, and four and above antenatal care visits, respectively. The mothers’ employment status, health cheek up after their delivery,and theirhealth facility delivery were positively influence the uptake of the vitamin A capsule. In addition,women residing in the communities with high proportion of the media exposure[AOR (Adjusted Odds Ratio) = 1.17 (95%CI: 1.00, 1.37)]were positively associated with the receipt of vitamin A capsule.Random effects indicated that the variation on the uptake of vitamin A supplementation between the communities was statistically significant in all stage of the models. Conclusions: The individual and community level characteristics had a significant influence on the uptake of vitamin A supplementation. Therefore, these factors should be considered in policy formulation and programming in order to improve the coverage of vitamin A supplementation in Ethiopia. Keywords: Vitamin A supply, associated factors, multilevellogistic regression analysis, Ethiopia