THE PREVALENCE OF UNDERNUTRITION AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG ORPHAN CHILDREN AGED 6-59 MONTHS IN GAMBELLA TOWN, SOUTHWEST, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Background: The effects of the loss of parental care on children can be devastating. Children without parental care find themselves at high risk for undernutrition.However, there is little information about nutritional status of orphans aged 6 to 59 months and associated factors in Gambella town. Objective: To assess the prevalence of undernutrition and associated factors among orphan children aged 6-59 month in Gambella town, Southwest Ethiopia from February 15- 30, 2018. Methods and materials: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted on randomly selected 410 orphan children aged 6-59 month living in Gambella town, Southwest Ethiopia. Structured pretested questionnaire was used to collect the data. The data were entered on to Epi-data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20.0 for analysis.Anthropometric indces (height-for-Age, Weight-for-Age and Weight-for-Height) were generated using WHO Anthros soft ware version 2.0.A cut off point below - 2 S.D used to determine nutritional status of children.All covariates with p value < 0.25 during bivariable analysis were considered for further multivariable logistic regression analysis to control all possible confounders and detect true predictors of undernutrition .level of stastical significance was declared at p value  0.05. Results: This study revealed that, the over all prevalence was [(wasting=high), (underweight=medium, (stunting=low)].which 19 %, 12.4 % and 10% respectively. Age 24-35 months[ (AOR 0.24: 95% CI( 0.06, 0.97)],care taker lack of formal education [(AOR =3.71: 95% CI (1.13,12.17)] and living with grandparent [(AOR= 0.378: 95% CI(0.071,2.00)] were significantly associated with stunting.Diarrhea prior to 2 weeks [(AOR= 0.104; 95% with CI(0 .03,0.35)],being from severly food insecured household [(AOR=46.17;95%CI(2.02,1052.4)] and notvaccinated[(AOR=3.376;95%CI(1.07,10.59)] were significantly associated with wasting.Underweight was significantly associated with having  2 orphan children [(AOR =2.06; 95% CI (1.20, 3.53)], being female[(AOR=2.10: 95% CI(1.26, 3.52)] and presence of fever [(AOR =2.26; 95% CI (1.21, 4.22)]. Conclusion: The over all prevalence of undernutrition was high. Child sex and age, care taker lack of formal education, not vaccinated, morbidity, food insecurity and number of OC in the household  2 were significantly associated with undernutrition.Thus,improving orphan child health care,social safty net program and education of care giver due attention to overcome undernutrion among orphans.