UNDERNUTRITION AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG SCHOOL ADOLESCENT GIRLS AGED 15-19 YEARS IN ASALA TOWN, OROMIA REGIONAL STATE, CENTRAL ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Background : - Adolescents are the future generation of any country and their nutritional needs are critical for growth and development. About 36% of adolescent girls were thin with 2011 EDHS. Malnourished adolescent girls would become malnourished mothers and most likely suffer from obstetric complications then deliver low birth weight babies. However, little is known about magnitude of undernutrition and associated factors among school adolescent girls in low in come countries like Ethiopia. Objective: To determine the magnitude of undernutrition and associated factors among school adolescent girls aged 15-19 years in Asala town, Oromia regional state, Central Ethiopia from February 1-8/2017 Methods and material: - School based cross-sectional study design was used among randomly selected 673 adolescent school girls. Socio demographic data were collected using a structured pre tested self-administered questionnaire. Moreover, anthropometric data weight and height were collected by using portable height scale and digital weight scale. The collected data were entered to Epi data version of 3.02 and exported to SPSS version 20.0 for further analysis. Thinness and stunting nutritional indices were calculated using WHO Anthro plus version 2007 software .Descriptive statistics was used to describe the study variables. Multicollinearity between independent variables was checked using the value for standard error in which case variables with value greater than 2 were dropped from analysis . All variables with P values < 0.25 during bivariable analyses were entered in to multivariable logistic regression to control for all possible confounders. Odds ratio along with 95% CI were estimated to identify predictors of undernutrition .Level of Statistical significance was declared at p value less than 0.05. The model fitness test was done by using Hosmer- Lemeshow goodness of model fitness test for both thinness and stunting. Results: The prevalence of thinness and stunting among adolescent girls were 23.2 %( 95% CI: 19.7, 26.4), and 16.5 %( 95% CI: 13.9, 19.4), respectively. Being born from uneducated mother [AOR=2.28,(95%CI:(1.24,4.20)], fathers' occupation of being daily laborer [AOR=2.35, (95% CI: (1.20,4.60)], adolescents with low dietary diversity [AOR=2.06, (95% CI:(1.36,3.11], adolescents attending government schools[(AOR=2.50 ,(95% CI: (1.17,5.36)],eating less than three times per day[95% CI: (2.12,5.59] were predictors of thinness. Where as being born from uneducated mother [AOR=2.28 (95%CI:1.24,4.20) fathers'occupation of being daily laborer[AOR=2.35(95%CI:1.20,4.60)],coming from greater five and above family size [AOR=2.21 (95%CI 1.29,3.76)] were predictors of stunting. Conclusion and recommendation: The magnitude of undernutrition was relatively high in study area. Thus,Asala town health office will apply integrated nutrition interventions in collaborating with other sectors to tackle undernutrition.