Comparative Study on Nutritional Status of under Five Children with Employment Status of Mothers in Adama Town, Central Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: As of many developing countries malnutrition is one of the most important health and welfare problems among infants and young children in Ethiopia. Inadequate and/or inappropriate dietary intake and infectious diseases are the immediate/direct causes which in turn are related to a number of socio-economic, demographic, child-care, and environmental factors among these factors one is women’s employment which has both negative and positive effects on nutritional status of children. Objectives: To determine the effect of maternal employment status on nutritional status of 6-59 month-old children in Adama town Methods: Community-based comparative cross-sectional study design with a multistage sampling technique was used to draw a sample of 319 non-employed mothers and 319 employed mothers. A total of 638 study participants were included and interviewed using a structured, pre tested questionnaire. Anthropometric measurements were taken using standard procedures and appropriate quality control measures. Height/length and weight of children was converted to Z-score of height for age, weight for height and weight for age by using WHO anthro software, the z-score indices were calculated using WHO 2007 growth reference. The data were entered using Epi Data version 3.5.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 16. Result: The prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting was found to be 33.8%, 12.6% and 8.3% respectively. The result of this study showed that the overall nutritional status of children of employed mothers is significantly better than that of children of non-employed mothers, with AOR (95%CI) for stunting 3.12 (1.42,6.83), underweight 3.06 (1.61,5.83) and wasting 3.12 (1.42,6.83). Conclusion and recommendation: The result of this study showed that there was statistically significant difference in child nutritional status among children of employed and non-employed mothers. Concerted efforts should be made to greatly decrease the number of malnourished children, by educating and motivating the public, empowering women through education and other affirmative action.