Abstract
Abstract
Background
In most developing nations, under-nutrition is a serious public health issue that disproportionately affects young children under the age of five. Ethiopia has one of the worst rates of stunting, wasting, and underweight. The current study sought to determine the prevalence of under-nutrition indicators and the factors that contribute to them in Ethiopian children under the age of five.
Methods
The 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey provided the data for the study. In the final analysis, a weighted sample of 7960 children under five was used. The indices of under-nutrition (stunting, wasting, and underweight) in Ethiopia were examined using multilevel binary logistic regression analysis. To quantify under-nutrition indicator variation between and within areas of Ethiopia, the data were fitted to the multilevel random coefficient model.
Results
The percentage of children that were stunted, wasted, and underweight was 36.6%, 12.2%, and 25.2%, respectively. Across the Ethiopian clusters, there were notable malnutrition variances. Stunting, wasting, and underweight were statistically significantly predicted by a child's age (measured in months), type of toilet facility, type of cooking fuels, number of under-five children in the household, wealth index of mothers, sex of the child, duration of breastfeeding, mother's educational level, region of residence, place of residence, zone, source of drinking water, father's educational level, and mother's BMI. But a key factor in determining stunting and wasting was the birth gap before (in months).
Conclusions
The current investigation discovered strong evidence of nutritional status variations within and between zonal clusters. The variation seen within regions was far greater than the variation found across Ethiopia's regions. Finally, it was discovered that under-five malnutrition contributes to a number of public health issues in the lower part of the nation, particularly regionally.
Publisher
Research Square Platform LLC