Maternal health during pregnancy has been very critical and important for intergenerational health. According to WHO about half of anemia is believed to be due to iron deficiency anemia. In Ethiopia, the anemia prevalence was reported 22% in pregnant and believed due to IDA. Despite recommendation of iron-folic acid supplementation adherence is still low. The objective of the research was to determine the prevalence of folate and vitamin B-12 deficiency among pregnant and association to anemia during second and third trimester. A cross-sectional hospital-based design was conducted to complete this research. 104 pregnant women were selected based on the current altitude adjusted hemoglobin status after informed consent form is signed from each participant. Serum folates, vitamin B-12 were determined using ECLIA and C-reactive protein by Cobas Integra e411. Serum folate, vitamin B-12 and CRP were defined as deficient below 3 ng/mL, 150 pg/mL and greater than 5 mg/L respectively. Data were coded and analyzed using SPSS 22 version. About half of pregnant women were with formal education. 68.1% of pregnant women were anemic based on cutoff point (Hgb<10.9 g/dL). Study participants deficiencies were observed in 27.9% for folate, 26.9% for vitamin B-12 and 23.1% for CRP based on WHO cut-off point. There is a positive association between folate and hemoglobin, low awareness among elder pregnant but, no association between age and hemoglobin value. There is high prevalence of CRP in comparison to previous studies. Supplementation of vitamin B-12 will be recommended including further research on risk factors including rural residents to strength the finding.

The authors have withdrawn this preprint due to author disagreement.

Background: Child undernutrition is a major public health problem in Ethiopia. Even though the highest levels of stunting are found in food insecure areas, insufficient evidence limits effective intervention to improve the situation. Therefore, this study aimed to assess undernutrition and associated factors among infants and young children aged 6–23 mo in food insecure households of Amhara and Oromia Regions, Ethiopia. Method: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in productive safety net targeted rural households of Amhara and Oromia Regions from April 25 to June 15, 2018.A total of 464 mother-child dyads were included in the study. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify factors associated with stunting, wasting and underweight separately. Results: The prevalence of stunting, wasting and underweight among children 6-23mo was 42.6%, 12.4% and 27.3% respectively. Age of the child 12-23vs 6-12mo(AOR = 4.21 95% CI: 2.52, 7.05), female (AOR = 1.84 [1.23, 2.75]), higher number of births (AOR = 1.72[1.10, 2.70]), lack of zinc supplement (AOR = 2.41[1.33, 4.38]), inadequate diet diversity (AOR=1.69[1.02, 2.81]) and lack of iodized salt in complementary food (AOR=1.55[1.03, 2.32]) were significantly associated with stunting. Similarly, age of child 12-23 mo (AOR=1.92[1.14, 3.24]), female gender (AOR = 1.88[1.22, 2.90]), higher number of births (AOR= 1.67[1.05, 2.66]), lack of zinc supplement (AOR=2.29[1.14, 4.61]), lower maternal income (AOR= 2.34[1.18, 4.65]), and inadequate diet diversity (AOR= 2.34[1.27, 4.33]) showed significant association with underweight. Conclusion: The magnitude of child undernutrition was found to be very high in the study areas. Child nutrition intervention strategies should take into account nutrition education on appropriate child feeding and iodized salt utilization. In addition, improving zinc supplementation and economic empowerment of women are important to address the high prevalence child undernutrition in the study area. Key words: Stunting, zinc, iodized salt, diet diversity, maternal income, food insecurity