Predictors of stunting among pediatric children living with HIV/AIDS, Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Globally, there were about 3.4 million pediatric children (<15 years of age) who were living with HIV/AIDS. Ethiopia has one of the highest rates of malnutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa. As of 2013, there were about 160,000 pediatric children living with HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia. Even though undernutrition makes it difficult to combat HIV/AIDS, there is paucity of information on the magnitude of stunting and its predictors among seropositive pediatric children in low-income countries like Ethiopia. Institution based quantitative cross sectional study design was employed on 414 randomly selected pediatric (5-15 years) children living with HIV/AIDS in Harari Region and Dire Dawa City Administration Public Hospitals, Eastern Ethiopia. Pretested interviewer administered questionnaire and patient card review was held to collect data. Data were entered through Epi-data and exported to SPSS for analysis. The WHO Anthros plus software was used to calculate the anthropometric indices. Bivariate and Multivariable analysis along with 95%CI were done to identify predictors of stunting. Level of statistical significance was declared at P-value <0.05. The prevalence of stunting was found to be 30.9% (95%CI: 26.0-36.0%). Rural residence [AOR=4.0, (95%CI: 2.22, 7.17)], family monthly income of ≤500 ETB [AOR=5.79, (95%CI: 2.82, 11.60)], being anemic [AOR=3.17, (95% CI: 2.13, 4.93)] and the presence of diarrhea [AOR=6.21, 95% (CI: 3.39, 9.24)] were predictors of stunting. Thus, collaborative measures should be undertaken (to decrease frequent infections and to improve the economic status) to combat chronic malnutrition during HIV/AIDS treatment.

Under-nutrition and associated factors among children on ART in Southern Ethiopia: a facility-based cross-sectional study

“…Malnourished children have lower resistance to infection and are more likely to die from a common childhood illness. Children living with the human immunodeficiency virus (CLHIV) are physically stunted and underweight compared to non-infected children [ 6 ].…”

Prevalence and determinants of under-nutrition among children on ART in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…As described in Table 1 , among the included studies, 7 were done in the Amhara region [ 4 , 23 – 25 , 27 , 31 , 38 ], whereas 2 in Oromia [ 22 , 30 ], 1 in Addis Ababa [ 39 ], 2 in Eastern Ethiopia [ 3 , 12 ], 1 in Harari [ 26 ], 2 from Sidama [ 28 , 29 ], and 1 in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples (SNNP) [ 8 ]. Regarding study design and publication year, most studies (87.5%) were cross-sectional, and published from 2012 to 2022, respectively.…”

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association of dietary diversity with undernutrition in school-aged children

“…Except for seven studies performed in other countries (Madagascar (n = 1) [25], India (n = 2) [26,27], Sri Lanka (n = 2) [28,29], Cambodia (n = 1), and Nigeria (n = 1)), the rest were conducted in Ethiopia. Except for two studies that used 7-day recall [20] and 30 days-FFQ [30], and one study did not reveal the dietary assessment index [31], the reminder utilized 24-hour recall for dietary assessment. With only three studies with HIVpositive children [21,31,32], all the studies investigated healthy children's populations.…”

“…Except for two studies that used 7-day recall [20] and 30 days-FFQ [30], and one study did not reveal the dietary assessment index [31], the reminder utilized 24-hour recall for dietary assessment. With only three studies with HIVpositive children [21,31,32], all the studies investigated healthy children's populations. Stunting, wasting, and thinness was identified using a height-for-age z-score (HAZ) of -2 SD, a weight-for-length z-score (WLZ) of -2 SD, and a weight-for-age z-score (WAZ) of -2 SD SDs below the WHO population median, respectively.…”