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

Abstract

Background Malnutrition is very common in HIV-infected individuals. Even though data from different settings are necessary to tackle it, pieces of evidence are limited especially in the case of the nutritional status of HIV-infected children. Hence, this study aims to assess the nutritional status and associated factors among children on antiretroviral therapy. Methods An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 383 HIV-positive children in Southern Ethiopia. Data were collected using an interviewer-administered questionnaire and anthropometry measurement. Data were coded and entered into Epi-Data Version 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS Version 25. Bi-variable and multi-variable binary logistic regression models were used to identify factors associated with nutritional status and variables with p-values <0.05 in multi-variable logistic regression were considered as statistically significant. Results The prevalence of wasting among HIV-positive children in Southern Ethiopiaselected Hospitals was 36.3% (95% CI, 31.6–41.0) while stunting on the same study population was 5.5% (95% CI, 3.4–7.8). Rural residence, lack of maternal education, low CD4 counts (< 500), using an unprotected water source, having a non-biological mother and recurrent oral lesion were significantly associated with wasting. Furthermore, history of hospital admission, recurrent oral lesion, low CD4 counts (< 500), advanced WHO clinical stage were statically associated with stunting with p-value < 0.05. Conclusion This study found that the prevalence of under-nutrition among HIV-positive children in Ethiopia was significantly high. Therefore, timely identification and monitoring of nutritional problems should be necessary to enhance the effectiveness of ART treatment and to prevent further related complications.

Nearly half of HIV-positive children attending public health facilities are suffering from chronic under-nutrition in conflict-affected zones of Southern Ethiopia

“…Our study showed that nearly half (49.1%) of HIV-positive children were stunted. This prevalence was higher than that reported from other studies in Adama, Amhara region, and a previous study in Southern Ethiopia ( 32 , 33 , 36 ). Researches indicated that children were disproportionately affected in environments where there is conflict ( 37 , 38 ).…”

Under-nutrition and associated factors among children infected with human immunodeficiency virus in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…This systematic review and meta-analysis included 38 primary articles with a total of 16,790 study participants published between 2010 and 2021 from more than 16 sub-Saharan African countries [ 6 – 8 , 22 – 27 , 33 – 61 ] (Table 1 ). All primary studies included in this systematic review and meta-analysis were observational studies conducted in health facilities with a sample size 28 to 3195 from study conducted in South Africa [ 48 ] and West Africa [ 46 ] respectively.…”

“…The highest prevalence of stunting was reported from a study conducted in Cameron (77.0%) [ 23 ], and the lowest was reported from a study conducted in Ethiopia (5.5%) [ 61 ]. Similarly, the highest prevalence of underweight was reported from a study in Nigeria (58.6%) [ 7 ], and the lowest was from a study in Tanzania (6.8%) [ 24 ].…”

Prevalence of undernutrition and associated factors among adults taking antiretroviral therapy in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…The full texts of 62 articles were downloaded and assessed against inclusion criteria. Thus, 18 articles were excluded for the following reasons: 7 studies did not report data on the outcome variable [5,[24][25][26][27][28][29], six studies were review papers [4,14,[30][31][32][33], three studies focused on children [30,34,35], one study was conducted out of SSA [36], one study focused on pregnant women [37], and one study lacks full text [38]. Finally, 44 studies were included in final systematic review and meta-analysis (Fig 1) [23].…”