Determinants of Malnutrition among under-five Children: A Case of ARSI Zone Selected Woredas in Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Background: Malnutrition is one of the major problem in Ethiopian and there are various factors contributing to malnutrition among children under-five years of age.

Objective: The study has been aimed to identify determinants/factors associated with malnutrition of under-age five children.

Methods: Cross-sectional data and probabilistic sampling method, anthropometric measurements of 997 sampled children under the age 6-59 months and information were taken from mothers/care givers of children on demographic, maternal factors, health seeking and nutritional factors and Multivariate logistic regression analyses were applied.

Results: The study revealed that the Prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting was 43.4%, 27.1% and 14.8%, respectively. On the levels of malnutrition by gender, the analyses indicate that stunting and underweight were higher among male than female children at 47.8%, 40.5%and 30.3%, 24.8% respectively. Whereas female children were slightly more wasting than their male counterparts. From the common forms of malnutrition such as stunting, wasting and underweight, stunting was the most common problem among under-five children in the woredas. The empirical results of the overall findings underlines that the key determinants of child nutrition status are complex and interrelated, requiring a multilayered and all rounded interventions for improving the severity and ultimately alleviating the problem. The prevalence of stunting is high for the child who never breast feed at all. A child who feed breast milk for 13-24 months was less likely to be stunted than the reference category (>24 months). A source of drinking water is also found to be significant determinant of the child nutrition. Specifically, the estimation result shows that children from households, who use safe water source, are less likely to be underweight than those who do not use safe water sources for drinking purpose.

Conclusion: Prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting was 43.4%, 27.1% and 14.8%, respectively. The prevalence of stunting is high for the child who never breast feed at all. A child who feed breast milk for 13-24 months was less likely to be stunted than the reference category (>24 months). A source of drinking water is found to be significant determinant of the child nutrition.