Abstract:
Back ground: Nutritional status of children is an important indicator for child health and overall
wellbeing. In Ethiopia, one in ten children were wasted. But there is scarcity of information on
determinants of acute malnutrition in Moyale district on among children of age 6 to 23
months.The objective of this study was to assess determinants of acute malnutrition among
children age 6 to 23 months in Moyale district Oromia region, Southern Ethiopia.
Methods: public facility based case control study was conducted in Moyale Borena Zone Oromia
Region from April 23 to June 20, 2017. A Total of 414 children (138 cases and 276 controls)
were included in the study.Data were collected by face to face interview with mother or caregiver
of the child where 3 health facilities were selected by simple random sampling technique. Data
were entered on to Epi data and exported to SPSS software version 20 for analysis. Descriptive,
bivariable and Multivariable analysis were conducted. Multivariable logistic regression analyses
were used .Crude odds ratio and adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was calculated.
The level of statistical significance was declared at p-value less than 0.05
Results: Wasting was associated with children of mother who were, not able to read and write
[AOR=1.38, 95% CI (0.33-5.85], maternal autonomy in decision making [(AOR, = 1.73, 95% CI
(0.21-2.46)],Bottle feeding, [(AOR, =8.32,95%CI (2.9,23.74)], having ANC visit at least four
times [(AOR, = 3.67, 95% CI (1.34-10.06)], absence of toilet [AOR =4.54, 95% CI (1.85,11.12)
, among children aged 6-23 month.
Conclusion: Wasting was strongly associated of acute malnutrition with poor maternal
educational status, poor access to health services, poor child feeding practice and absence of toilet
in the family. Thus, coordinated effort should be made at all levels to improve poor child feeding
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practice, maternal health services and education, and latrine construction to curb the problems of
child under nutrition.
