Table 1 Description of individual and community-level variables of mothers of children aged 6–23 months in Ethiopia, 2019

Maternal age

It is the current age of women recoded as 15–24, 25–34, and 35–49.

Maternal educational status

This is the level of education a woman attained and recoded as no education, primary, secondary and higher.

Religion

This variable is the religious group to which the woman associates herself and recoded to dominant religious groups: Muslim, Orthodox, Protestant, and others (Catholic, traditional and others).

Family size

It is the total number of household members and recoded as ≤ 5 or > 5 members.

Wealth index

In DHS the wealth index is calculated using data on a household’s ownership of selected assets. Each household asset is assigned a weight score generated through PCA. The resulting asset scores are standardized and summed by household and individuals are ranked according to the total score of the household in which they reside. Consequently, it is grouped as poorest, poorer, middle, richer and richest. Finally, we have re-categorized the variable as Low income (poorest and poorer), Middle income and High income (richer and richest).

Region

Region of residence is typically the first administrative level within the country, or a grouping of the first administrative level. There are 11 regions in Ethiopia which were categorized into three contextual regions in our study. These are agrarian regions (Tigray, Amhara, Oromia, Benishanul-Gumuz, SNNPR, Gambela and Harari), pastoralist regions (Afar and Somali) and city administrations (Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa).

Place of residence

It is the designation of the cluster or enumeration area as an urban area or a rural area.