BURDEN OF CHRONIC MALNUTRITION AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG UNDER FIVE CHILDREN IN EASTERN ZONE OF TIGRAY, NORTHERN ETHIOPIA; A COMMUNITY BASED CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY.

Gebremedhin Gebreegziabiher* and Haftay Gebremedhin

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Malnutrition is insufficient, excessive or imbalance consumption of dietary energy and nutrients. Children that are malnourished tend to have increased risk of morbidity and mortality and often suffer delayed mental development, poor school performances and reduced intellectual achievement. Malnutrition is responsible, directly or indirectly, for 54% of the 10.8 million deaths per year in children under five. The objective of this study is to assess the burden of chronic malnutrition and associated factors among under five children in three randomly selected Districts of Easetrn zone of Tigray. Method: A community based cross sectional study was used and it was conducted between May 1/2014 and January 30/2015 in Eastern zone of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. A total of three Districts from the zone and six Tabias from each district were selected by simple random sampling technique/lottery system. A total of 796 children were selected by simple random sampling method. Primary data was collected by a combination of structured questionnaire and collection of anthropometric data. The data was entered in to Epi-Info 3.5.1; cleaned and all errors/outliers were corrected. Then the data was transported to SPSS 16.0 for final analysis and anthropometric data was analyzed using ENA for SMART software. Binomial and multinomial logistic regression analyses were performed to identify factors associated with chronic malnutrition (stunting). Result: data was collected from all of the 796 children indicating 100% response rate. The prevalence of stunting among the study participants was 57.03%. Age of children below 12 months and frequency of diarrhea per year were significantly associated with stunting with AOR of 1.74 and 3.14 respectively. Conclusion: Age of children below 12 months and frequency of diarrhea per year were significantly associated with stunting.

Keywords: Stunting, Under five children, Northern Ethiopia, cross sectional study.