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Article History

Received: 3 November 2024

Accepted: 13 February 2026

First Online: 22 February 2026

Declarations

:

: The authors declare no competing interests.

: Ethical approval was provided by the Ethics Committee of the National Health Sciences Research (NHSR), with formal ethical approval No. 17/03/1745 provided to the research team. To facilitate data collection, the National Statistics Office (NSO), the District Commissioners (DC), the District Health Officers (DHO) and the Area Development Committees (ADC), representing development committees, provided letters of support. Informed and written consent was obtained from the study participants, including the head of household, reference mothers, and caregivers on behalf of their children. In cases where the respondents were illiterate, a literate person from the community read the consent form aloud in the local language. Then we obtained the thumbprint of the respondent, and the person who read the consent form signed as a witness. The research procedures were conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

: Privacy data are not used in this publication.