Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Oct 24;13(10):e062582.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-062582.

Prevalence of Acute Malnutrition and Associated Factors among Children aged 6-59 months in South Wollo Zone, East Amhara, Northeast Ethiopia: a Community-based cross-sectional study

Setegn Tarekegn Mihret  1 , Gebeyaw Biset  2 , Nurye Ali Nurye  3
Affiliations

Prevalence of Acute Malnutrition and Associated Factors among Children aged 6-59 months in South Wollo Zone, East Amhara, Northeast Ethiopia: a Community-based cross-sectional study

Setegn Tarekegn Mihret et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of acute malnutrition and associated factors in South Wollo zone, East Amhara, Northeast Ethiopia.

Design: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 504 children aged 6-59 months who were selected by using a multistage sampling technique. The mid-upper-arm-circumference and Z-scores for weight-for-height were used to determine the nutritional status of the participants. A semi-structured interview questionnaire was used to collect the data. Then data was entered into EpiData V.3.1 and exported to SPSS software V.25 for analysis. Binary logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with acute malnutrition and variables with p value<0.05 were declared as statistically significant.

Setting: The study was conducted in South Wollo zone, Northeast Ethiopia from 1 August 2020 to 30 September 2020.

Participants: Children aged 6-59 months with their mothers were the study subjects.

Results: The prevalence of acute malnutrition among children aged 6-59 months was 31.0%. Child aged 6-11 months (adjusted OR (AOR)=3.92; 95% CI: 1.74 to 8.82), illiterate mothers (AOR=3.01; 95% CI: 1.92 to 7.01), single mother (AOR=3.06; 95% CI: 1.32 to 7.07), lack of latrine (AOR=2.39; 95% CI: 1.12 to 5.11), diarrhoea (AOR=4.18; 95% CI: 2.02 to 8.65), respiratory tract infection (AOR=2.31; 95% CI: 1.08 to 4.94), family size (≥5) (AOR=3.29; 95% CI: 1.53 to 7.09) and cessation of breast feeding before 2 years (AOR=3.79; 95% CI: 1.71 to 8.23) were the independent predictors of acute malnutrition.

Conclusion: Acute malnutrition is highly prevalent in the study area which is more than the national figure. Thus, improving maternal education, access to the latrine, improved breastfeeding practice, improved family planning usage and early detection and treatment of diarrhoea and respiratory tract infections will enhance children's nutritional status. In addition, nutritional diversity education needs to be strengthened.

Keywords: Malabsorption; NUTRITION & DIETETICS; Nutrition; Nutritional support; Public health.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Acute malnutrition of children aged 6–59 months in the South Wollo zone of Ethiopia, based on MUAC and Z-score, in 2020. The extent of acute malnutrition evaluated by mid-upper-arm-circumference (MUAC), Z-scores for weight-for-height-score and children falling under both MUAC<12.5 cm and Z-score less than –2 SD is shown in the graph above.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Jones KDJ, Berkley JA. Severe acute malnutrition and infection. Paediatr Int Child Health 2014;34 Suppl 1:S1–29. 10.1179/2046904714Z.000000000218 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kavishe FP. Towards eliminating malnutrition in Tanzania:nutrition vision 2025; 2014.
    1. Kavishe F. Towards eliminating malnutrition in Tanzania: vision 2025 technical report; 2014.
    1. Demissie S, Worku A. Magnitude and factors associated with malnutrition in children 6-59 months of age in pastoral community of Dollo Ado district, Somali region, Ethiopia. SJPH 2013;1:175. 10.11648/j.sjph.20130104.12 - DOI
    1. Gebre A, Reddy PS, Mulugeta A, et al. Prevalence of malnutrition and associated factors among under-five children in pastoral communities of afar regional state, northeast Ethiopia: a community-based cross-sectional study. J Nutr Metab 2019;2019:9187609. 10.1155/2019/9187609 - DOI - PMC - PubMed