Assesment of under nutirition and Associated factors among underfive children in Babile woreda Somali Region, Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Under nutrition contributes to the deaths of about 3 million children every year and continued to threaten the lives of hundreds of millions of children globally. Stunting, wasting, under-weight, and micronutrient deficiencies are the indicators of the under nutrition. The majority of the previous local studies focused on only age of 5-14 years or 6—23 month and investigating Acute malnutrition only and, this study carried out to fill the gap by generating evidence regarding under nutrition and associated factors among children less than five (<5) years using community based studies. Objective: To assess under nutrition and its associated factors among under five children in Babile Woreda, Somali regional state, in Dec 10, 2023 to Jan 10,2024 Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from Dec,10 2023 to Jan. 10,2024 in babile woreda. A total of 437 Mothers/caregivers with children aged underfive years old were selected by a systematic sampling method. Epi-data version 4.6.6 was used for data entry, stata version 17 were used for statistical analysis, and WHO Anthro version 3.2.1 software were used for calculating the z scores. Bivariate logistic regression and multivariate logistic regression were used to analyze the data. AOR with 95% CI and P-values less than 0.05 were considered to be the statistical significant. Results: A total of 428 mothers or care givers paired with under five children was included in this study with response rate of 98%. The prevalence of undernutrition (Stunting, underweight and wasting) were 39.01%(34.49-43.73),25.93(21.99-30.33) and 18.69(15.26-22.68) respectively. Educational status of mother(AOR= 7.32, 95%CI:4.04-13.27), and duration of breast feeding (AOR=2.44, 95%CI:1.25-4.75) and (AOR=2.42,95%CI:1.02- 5.73) were significantly associated with stunting. Family size (AOR=7.57, 95%CI:2.64-21.74) and exposure to diarrhea in the past to weeks (AOR=2.51, 95%CI:1.37- 4.58) were significantly associated with wasting. Mother’s monthly income(AOR=3.08, 95%CI:1.62-5.85), and Children’s exposure to diarrhoea in the past two weeks (AOR=3.73,95%CI: 2.10-6.64) were significantly associated with underweight. Conclusions. This study indicated that child undernutrition was high among under-five Children as compared to WHO classification of level of public health significance. We recommend to x promote use of family planning , preventing diarrhoeal diseases and provide nutritional counselling for mothers who had no formal education which are vital interventions to improve nutritional status of the children.