Abstract:
Although optimal maternal nutrition is essential for the health of a woman and her newborn(s), maternal undernutrition in Ethiopia is among the highest in the world. In addition, a huge inequity exists within the country, with the pastoral population being at increased risk. To date no studies have been conducted in Southern Ethiopia which assessed the nutritional status of this segment of population. Objectives: This study was conducted to assess the prevalence of acute malnutrition and its associated factors among pregnant women in the pastoral community of Goro Dola District, Guji Zone of Southern Ethiopia from June 15 – 30, 2020. Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted among 376 pregnant women selected by a simple random sampling method. Maternal anthropometric measurements, pregnancy and nutrition related data were collected by trained data collectors. The collected data were double entered to Epi-Data version 3.1 and exported to Statistical Package for Social Science version 20 for analysis. Descriptive statistics was used to describe characteristics of study participants. Mid Upper Arm Circumference < 23cm defined as acute undernutrition. Binary and multiple logistic regressions were run to check association between independent and dependent variables along with 95% confidence interval (CI). P-values less than 0.05 were considered as statistically significant.
Results: A total of 376 pregnant women participated in the study. Prevalence of acute undernutrition was 41.2% [95% CI=36.3%-46.3%]. Unplanned pregnancy[AOR=2.06; 95%CI(1.27-3.36)], not participating in health development army meetings [AOR=3.64; 95%CI(1.51-8.77)], dietary diversity scores of ≥ 5 [AOR=0.24; 95% CI(0.07-0.82)], antenatal care [AOR=0.46; 95%CI(0.27-0.78)], age at first pregnancy of ≥ 20years [AOR=0.39; 95% CI(0.21-0.76)] and household food security [AOR=0.26; 95%CI(0.16-0.43)] were significantly associated with acute undernutrition. Conclusions: About four in ten women in the district have acute undernutrition. Improving nutritional status of pregnant women in the pastoral community should target on improving antenatal care, ensuring household food security, using health development army for disseminating essential information, and strengthening family planning to reduce unwanted pregnancy
