Abstract:
Introduction: Malnutrition is major public-health problem throughout the developing world and is
an underlying factor in over 50% of the 10–11 million children under 5 years of age who die each
year. Although the prevalence of malnutrition is generally high in Ethiopia, its predictors have to do
with socio-culture bound child feeding and caring practices that are subject to variability based on
the specific cultural practices surrounding child feeding. As there was no enough documented the
predictors in North Shoa Zone of Oromiya Region, documentation of the predictors of acute
malnutrition is important for designing appropriate intervention strategies.
Objective: To identify predictors of acute malnutrition among 6 - 23 months in Hidhabu Abote
Woreda, Oromiya Regional State, Ethiopia
Methods: Community based unmatched case-control study design was utilized. Children of 6-23
months in the woreda were screened by weight for height and 288 children (144 cases and 144
controls) were selected by simple random sampling technique. Data were collected using structured
questionnaire after training was given for data collectors and supervisors. Variables that were found
statistically significant under bivariate analysis were identified and entered into multivariate logistic
regression and finally p value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant for all the
independent factors of outcome variables.
Results: The mean age of the cases and controls were 13.38 (+ 4.68) and 14.41 (+ 5.44) month
respectively. There were more males in the cases 68 (47.5%) than in the controls 58 (40.5Cases
with malnutrition were more likely to: have mothers who did not graduate as model by the health
extension program (AOR= 7.246), have spring and /or river as source of drinking water (AOR=
5.349), initiate breastfeeding late (AOR= 4.248), not exclusively breastfed (AOR= 4.586), not
given colostrum (AOR=2.706), be bottle fed (AOR=3.111) and have illness during the last two
weeks before the survey (AOR=4.136) compared to controls.
Conclusion: the findings showed that independent predictors of acute malnutrition were suboptimal
child feeding practices that are not according the recommendation of the national infant and youth
child feeding guidelines, mothers did not graduated by health extension program, illness of the child
during the past two weeks before the survey and using unclean water source (spring/river).
Interventions for improving the nutritional status of children should target behavior change
communications on optimal child feeding practices based on the final guideline and improving
water and sanitation including home based treatment of water using ‘Wuha’ Agar.
