Abstract
Background Stunting is a major public health problem affecting children in low- and middle-income countries and has become one of the underlying causes of early childhood mortality. However, there is a paucity of information on the prevalence of stunting and its predictors among school children in these settings including Ethiopia. Objective The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of stunting and its predictors among school children in Northeast Ethiopia. Methods A school-based cross-sectional study design was used among 341 primary school children in Northeast Ethiopia from October to December 2019. A simple random sampling technique was used to recruit the study subjects. A pretested structured questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic and dietary data. Anthropometric data were generated using WHO AnthroPlus software version 1.0.4. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to see the association between independent variables and the outcome variable. Odds ratio along with 95% confidence interval was estimated to measure the strength of the association. The level of statistical significance was declared at p value ≤ 0.05. Results The prevalence of stunting was found to be 14.1% (95% CI: 10.1%, 18.1%). Family size of 6–9 (AOR = 2.43; 95% CI: (1.16, 4.58)), washing hands less frequently before eating (AOR = 3.96; 95% CI: (2.09, 11.66)), and intestinal parasitic infection (AOR = 2.66; 95% CI: (1.16, 4.95)) were significantly associated with stunting. Conclusion The prevalence of stunting among school-age children was a great public health concern. Large family size, poor handwashing practice before meals, and intestinal parasitosis were significant predictors of stunting. Thus, periodic deworming, health education on personal hygiene, and health promotion and counseling on family planning need to be strengthened by all relevant stakeholders.
Highlights
Stunting is defined as a measure of linear growth retardation in which a child is short for his or her age below −2 standard deviations (SD) of the height-for-age median value of the world health organization (WHO) child growth standards [1, 2]
All children who were enrolled in the primary schools in Kutaber district and living at least for 6 months prior to the study in the district were included in the study
Children with physical deformity who might distort the quality of anthropometric measurement and those who had taken deworming treatment one month prior to the survey were excluded from the study
Summary
Stunting is defined as a measure of linear growth retardation in which a child is short for his or her age below −2 standard deviations (SD) of the height-for-age median value of the world health organization (WHO) child growth standards [1, 2]. Child undernutrition is a collective adverse consequence which is recognized later in life, and it includes impaired cognitive development, poorer educational achievement, and human capital formation. It is associated with poor developmental achievement in young children and poor school performance in older children [3, 4]. Children can exhibit catch-up growth if Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism their environment improves which suggests that interventions among school-age children can supplement efforts in the preschool years to reduce levels of stunting and related effects on children’s health and education [6]. Erefore, this study was aimed at assessing the prevalence of stunting and its predictors among school-age children in the study setting
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