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Back ground: Childhood nutrition is known to have a considerable impact on children’s health. In Ethiopia, Inadequate and/or inappropriate dietary intake and infectious diseases are the immediate/direct causes which in turn are related to a number of socio-economic, demographic, child-care, and environmental factors among these factors the relationship between maternal employment status and child nutritional status were not Cleary known the study area therefore; Comprehensive study on the nutritional status and associated factors is needed.
Objective: assess the association of maternal work status outside the home on nutritional status of 6-59 month-old children in Bahir Dar city, Amhara regional state, Ethiopia 2018.
Method: Community-based comparative cross-sectional study design with a multistage sampling technique was used to draw a sample of 309 non-employed mothers and 309 employed mothers. A total of 618 study participants were assessed using a structured, pre tested questionnaire. Height/length and weight of children was converted to Z-score of height for age, weight for height and weight for age by using WHO Anthro software. The data were entered using Epi Data version 3.5.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 23. Multinomial Logistic regression was done for the final models that shows significant effect at p value <0.05 Comparisons Between working and non-working mothers.
Result: The overall result revealed that the prevalence of wasting was sixty-one (9.80 %), of which Forty-nine (7.90%) and twelve (1.90%) were moderately and severely wasted respectively. Seventy-six (12.33%) were underweight, of these, sixty-nine (11.2%) and seven (1.13%) were moderately and severely underweight respectively. on the other hands one hundred fifty four (24.91%) were stunted of which one hundred three (16.66%) and fifty one(8.25%)were moderately and severely stunted. There was no statistically significant association between working status of the mother and nutritional status of their children. However, stunting was influenced by maternal education, total duration of breast feeding, number of under five children, maternal bank saving account, maternal knowledge on breast and complementary feeding and household monthly income.
Conclusion: There was no statistically significant difference in child nutritional status among children of working and non-working mothers. Thus, nutritional intervention initiatives should focus on improving household food security, maternal education, knowledge on breast and complementary feeding and household monthly income. |
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