Abstract
Globally, malnutrition is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in children under the age of five year. The relative importance of each of the known risk factors of malnutrition including household food insecurity is likely to vary between settings. However, to the best of authors’ knowledge, there is no sound empirical study that simultaneously investigates the relative importance of maternal disempowerment and food insecurity on the risk of undernutrition in 6 -36 month old children in the study area. Therefore, this study was aimed to examine role of maternal disempowerment and food insecurity on under nutrition in 6-36 month old children living in Gurage Zone. To achieve study objective, Hospital based unmatched case–control study was conducted among 6-36 month old children who visited to the selected health facility of Gurage zone. A total of 346 (116 cases and 232 controls) children were included in the study. Case participants were selected consecutively; control participants were selected by systematic sampling technique. Data were collected by using interviewer administered structured questionnaire with anthropometric measurement instrument and entered into EPI data v 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS v 21. Crude and adjusted odds ratios were calculated through simple and binary multiple logistic regressions model. The result showed that undernutrition among children was significantly associated with high maternal disempowerment [AOR 6.53 (2.77-15.34)] and severe food insecurity [AOR 2.79 (1.29.04)]. Generally, the study concluded that maternal disempowerment and severe food insecurity were independently associated with under nutrition among 6-36 month old children living in study area. Besides, Hence, enhancing the household food security and promoting mother to decide lonely or jointly with their husband on issue that affects their own self or child health, resource allocation and freedom of mobility is important to prevent under nutrition in 6-36 month old children.
Highlights
Malnutrition is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in children under the age of five years [4]
The study was conducted in Butajira town of Gurage Zone which is located in southern Ethiopia
By considering control over resources, freedom of movement, the autonomy to decide upon own and child health care as direct indicator of household maternal empowerment, this study explored that from 115 malnourished children included in the analysis 12.2, 39.1 and
Summary
Malnutrition is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in children under the age of five years [4]. Malnutrition encompasses both over nutrition and under nutrition. Global estimation on child hood malnutrition revealed that 165 million children were stunted, 101million were under weight and 52 million were wasted in 2011. Malnutrition is a health outcome as well as it can increase the risk of both morbidity and mortality associated with other disease [6]. It is estimated that 45% of all child deaths directly and indirectly associated
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