UNDERNUTRITION AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG KHAT CHEWER AND NON- CHEWER LACTATING MOTHERS IN CHIRO DISTRICT, WEST HARARGE, OROMIA REGION, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Lactating mothers are one of the nutritionally vulnerable groups because of the high calorie and nutrient demands of lactation. Besides, khat has several nutrition-related health consequences which include loss of appetite that intern leads to undernutrition due to maternal nutrients depletion. Ethiopia is one of the counties wher khat is widely used and maternal undernutrition is important public health problem. However, there is no documented study in Ethiopia that related undernutrition with khat-chewing habit among lactating mother. Objective: To assess the prevalence of undernutrition and associated factors among khat chewer and non-chewer lactating mothers in the residents of Chiro District, West Hararge, Eastern Ethiopia, from June 1 - 30, 2020. Method: A community-based comparative cross-sectional study was used among 452 (226 khat-chewers and 226 non-chewers) randomly selected lactating mothers. Data were collected using structured questionnaires and body weight and height was measured using the standard anthropometric measurement procedures. Data were entered using Epi-Data version 3.1 and exported to STATA version 14.2 for analysis. Bi-variable and multivariable binary logistic regression analyses were done to see the association between the dependent and independent variable. The level of statistical significance was declared at p-value less than 0.05. Results: The prevalence of undernutrition was significantly higher among khat chewers, 39.0% [95% CI: 32.8, 45.6] than non-chewers, 22.4% [95% CI: 17.4, 28.4]. The factors significantly associated with undernutrition include: Chewing daily [AOR = 3.14, 95% CI :1.08, 9.15], reducing number of meal after chewing [AOR = 3.45, 95% CI:1.29, 9.20], and unavailability of latrine [AOR = 2.98, 95% CI:1.02, 8.75] among khat chewer lactating mothers whereas early age of first pregnancy [AOR = 3.17, 95% CI :1.17, 8.60], not taking any additional meal [AOR=3.41,95% CI:1.08,10.7] and low dietary diversity score [AOR=2.96, 95% CI:1.01, 8.67] among non-chewer lactating mothers. Conclusions: The overall prevalence of undernutrition is higher as compared to the previous studies and also it is alarming among khat-chewer lactating mother. Therefore, programmers and stakeholders working on maternal health and nutrition should design interventions that focus on factors affecting the nutritional status of mothers.