Abstract
Background Undernutrition in early childhood has irreversible and long-lasting implications. Hence, this study was aimed at assessing risk factors of child undernutrition. Methods A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 642 households with mothers to children pairs aged 6–59 months selected by a multistage systematic random sampling method. Child anthropometric measurements on weight were recorded using standardized and calibrated weighing scales. Weight-for-age was compared to the 2007 WHO growth reference by WHO Anthro software. Data were entered using Epi-Info and analyzed using SPSS. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate the association between underweight children and their predictors; both crude and adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence interval were reported. Results One-fourth (25%) of the children were underweight. Child age (AOR: 2.36), gender (AOR: 1.82), illness (AOR: 0.09), maternal decision making power (AOR: 0.07), maternal education (AOR: 0.19), employment/occupation (AOR: 5.29), and household income (AOR: 4.16) were found to be independent and significant predictors of underweight children. Conclusion Significant proportion of the children were underweight. Maternal decision-making power persists as a strong predictor of children's weight. Therefore, intervention programs focusing on improving mothers' decision-making power on child nutrition would contribute to the efforts towards alleviating the problem.
Highlights
Undernutrition in early childhood has irreversible and long-lasting implications
Nearly three-quarters live in just 10 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa region; Ethiopia and Nigeria alone share 33% of the region’s burden [6]
Forty two percent of the respondents had less than 2000-birr average monthly income (Table 1)
Summary
Undernutrition in early childhood has irreversible and long-lasting implications. this study was aimed at assessing risk factors of child undernutrition. Child age (AOR: 2.36), gender (AOR: 1.82), illness (AOR: 0.09), maternal decision making power (AOR: 0.07), maternal education (AOR: 0.19), employment/occupation (AOR: 5.29), and household income (AOR: 4.16) were found to be independent and significant predictors of underweight children. Its consequences are severe and have irreversible and long-lasting implications [2] It is responsible for the annual deaths of 3.5 million underfive children globally and the third disease burden of this age group. It continues to be a significant global public health and development concern [3]. An estimated 16% of under-five children were underweight (i.e., weight-for-age below –2 SD) in 2011. Nearly three-quarters live in just 10 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa region; Ethiopia and Nigeria alone share 33% of the region’s burden [6]
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