DETERMINANTS OF UNDERNUTRITION AMONG INFANTS AND YOUNG CHILDREN IN JIMA GENETI DISTRICT, WESTERN OROMIA, ETHIOPIA

Background and Objective: Malnutrition is of public health importance in developing countries including Ethiopia and is responsible for over half of child deaths each year from preventable causes. Therefore, this study was designed to identify determinants of under-nutrition among infants and young children in Jima Geneti district, western Oromia, Ethiopia.

Materials and Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted in October, 2019. Multi stages sampling methods were employed to select 500 children. Child dietary diversity score (DD) was assessed using a 24 hrs recall method. Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) and anthropometric data were used to determine food insecurity and nutritional status, respectively. SPSS version 20.0 was used for analysis. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated to under-nutrition among children and statistical association was declared significant if p-value was less than 0.05.

Results: The finding of this study revealed that the prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting among children was 19.6%, 27% and 11.8%, respectively. In multivariate analysis of this study, wealth index, food insecurity, child birth order, antenatal care visit, wild edible foods intake, having a history of sickness and dietary diversity score were determinants of under-nutrition.

Conclusion: This study concluded that under-nutrition among children in the study area is very high. Therefore, nutritional intervention through community based behaviour change communication (BCC) should be initiated to overcome the determinants of under-nutrition and further to improve the nutritional related health status of children.