Abstract:
Background: Acute malnutrition is a major global public health problem, particularly in low and
middle-income countries. A targeted supplementary feeding program is an approach
recommended to address moderate acute malnutrition in food insecure settings. Preventing and
treating moderate acute malnutrition requires identifying factors shown to affect the treatment
outcome and duration of stay on treatment. However, evidence is limited regarding the factors
that affect the time to recovery of moderate acute malnutrition in Ethiopia, particularly in Fedis
Woreda.
Objective: To determine time to recovery from moderate acute malnutrition and its predictors
among children age 6-59 months in Fedis Woreda East Hararghe Zone, Eastern Ethiopia, From
January 01, 2022 – December 31, 2022. Data was extracted from February 20 – March 10, 2023.
Methods: A facility based retrospective cohort study was conducted on 567 children with
moderate acute malnutrition in randomly selected kebeles of Fedis Woreda East Hararghe Zone
A multi stage sampling technique were used to select study participants. Pretested and structured
checklist were used to extract/abstract the data by trained data collectors. Descriptive statistics
were used to describe the characteristics of study participants. Cox proportional hazard
regression was fitted to identify the predictors of time-to-recovery from moderate acute
malnutrition, thereby estimating the crude and adjusted hazard ratios with 95% confidence
intervals. Statistical significance was considered at p<0.05.
Result: Both the overall mean timely recover was 16 weeks and median times to recovery were
16 weeks. The major predicting factors for time to recovery among children 6-59 months are:
admission mid upper arm circumference of 12.1-12.5 centimeter (AHR=1.02, 95%CI: 1.01-
1.19), access to transportation (AHR=0.62, 95%CI: 0.36-0.81), specialized nutritious foods
(AHR=1.96, 95%CI: 1.36-3.11) and diarrhea (AHR=0.4, 95%CI: 0.31-0.71).
Conclusion: Though the median time to recovery of children admitted to targeted supplementary
feeding was 16 weeks which is consistent with national standard acute malnutrition treatment
guideline of Ethiopia health care providers need to give emphasis on early case identification of
the case and timely management of comorbidities like diarrhea.
