Magnitude and Factors Associated with Malnutrition in Children 6-59 Months of Age in Pastoral Community of Dollo Ado District, Somali Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Malnutrition at the early stages of life can lower child resistance to infections, increase child morbidity and mortality, and decrease mental development and cognitive achievement. Adequate nutrition is the keystone of survival, health and development not only of current generations but also of the ones to come. Child malnutrition is a major public health problem in Ethiopia. Objectives: To assess the magnitude and factors associated with malnutrition of children 6 to 59 months of age in Dollo Ado district, Somali region. Methods: A community based, cross-sectional study was conducted on 541 mother-child pairs of 6-59 month old children in December 2012. Anthropometric measurements of height and weight of 541 study children were taken with physical examination to identify the severe form of malnutrition and the socio-demographic characteristics of the subjects were collected using a questionnaire. Both anthropometric and non anthropometric data were entered using Epi-Info version 3.5.2. The data were analyzed using SPSS Version 16.0. Both bivariate and multivariate analysis (logistic regression model) was used to identify the determinants of child malnutrition. Results: Result of the study revealed that the overall prevalence of malnutrition in the community was high with 42.3% of the children being wasted, 34.4% for stunting and 47.7% for underweight. All three forms of malnutrition (wasting, stunting and underweight) was more prevalent among boys than girls with a statistically significant of P<0.031. Prevalence of wasting was higher among young children while stunting and underweight were more likely to be observed in older children. Regression analysis shows that the significant determinants of malnutrition were gender and age of child, marital status, maternal education, monthly HH income, decision making, having of livestock, presence of ARI, total number of children ever born, health status during pregnancy, pre-lactation practice, mode of feeding, access to clean water and type of floor in the households. Conclusions: The prevalence of child malnutrition among the under five children was high, indicating that the nutrition situation in study area is very critical. Thus, malnutrition is a major public health problem. Further in-depth studies should also be encouraged to look for improved interventions.

Determinants for Acute Malnutrition among Under-Five Children at Public Health Facilities in Gedeo Zone, Ethiopia: A Case-Control Study

“…The result is similar to studies conducted in Somali region [12], Ethiopia, Oromia region West Ethiopia [14], and Gambit, Ethiopia [9]. Similarly, other studies conducted in Iran [6], Nigeria [7], north Sudan [10] and Zimbabwe [11] argued that low family income was the risk factor for under five acute malnutrition.…”

“…Children whose mothers are illiterate were 4 fold at risk to have severe acute malnutrition as compared to those children have literate mothers. Similar findings were revealed at studies done in Shashogo Woreda, Southern Ethiopia [22], Gonder, Ethiopia [17], Oromia region, West Ethiopia [14], Somali Region, Ethiopia [12], in Ghana [24], Gambia and Nigeria [18], Bangladesh [25] and Granada, Nicaragua [26]. This could be due to illiterate mothers have less perception about the nutritional need of their children and most of them have poor socio-economic status.…”

“…Evidence showed that socio-demographic factors such as; household's poverty and income, residence, parental occupation, parental education, maternal age, family size, overcrowding, and lack of exposure to mass media have influenced the occurrence of underfive acute malnutrition [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Furthermore, some behavioral or community factors including lack of maternal and child health services, of adequate and safe water supply, hygiene of caregiver and of improved environmental sanitation play their role in the occurrence of malnutrition [13,14].…”

Nutritional Status of Children (6-59 Months) from Food Secure and Food Insecure Households in Rural Communities of Saesie Tsaeda-Emba District, Tigray, North Ethiopia: Comparative Study

“…So, this could be again a concern for further researches to know the anemia status of those children and others as cow's milk consumption by infants less than 12 months of age was common practice there though it was shown that cow's milk consumption had protective effect against being underweight. Another determinant factor of underweight in the current study was the main source of water to the household though association was not found in other studies of regions of the country (23,28) and developing countries (15,16); but, in this current study those children of food insecure households who were used to river water as main source were 2.75 times at higher risk to be underweight compared to those children of who were used to pipe (hand pump) as main source of water. And this might be as reasons of poor households were more likely to obtain water from unsafe sources.…”

“…And this was supported by different studies (14,26) but in contradiction with the studies (15,23). As a final point, children of food insecure households who were used to Protected and unprotected well/Spring as main source of water were 2.95 and 3.54 times at higher risk to be wasted respectively; compared to those children of who were used to pipe (hand pump) as main source of water.…”