Maternal Disempowerment and Sever Food Insecurity as Determinants of Undernutrition Among 6-36 Month Old Children in Gurage Zone, Southern Ethiopia: Case-Control Study

Abstract

Globally, malnutrition is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in children under the age of five year. The relative importance of each of the known risk factors of malnutrition including household food insecurity is likely to vary between settings. However, to the best of authors' knowledge, there is no sound empirical study that simultaneously investigates the relative importance of maternal disempowerment and food insecurity on the risk of undernutrition in 6-36 month old children in the study area. Therefore, this study was aimed to examine role of maternal disempowerment and food insecurity on under nutrition in 6-36 month old children living in Gurage Zone. To achieve study objective, Hospital based unmatched case-control study was conducted among 6-36 month old children who visited to the selected health facility of Gurage zone. A total of 346 (116 cases and 232 controls) children were included in the study. Case participants were selected consecutively; control participants were selected by systematic sampling technique. Data were collected by using interviewer administered structured questionnaire with anthropometric measurement instrument and entered into EPI data v 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS v 21. Crude and adjusted odds ratios were calculated through simple and binary multiple logistic regressions model. The result showed that undernutrition among children was significantly associated with high maternal disempowerment [AOR 6.53 (2.77-15.34)] and severe food insecurity [AOR 2.79 (1.29.04)]. Generally, the study concluded that maternal disempowerment and severe food insecurity were independently associated with under nutrition among 6-36 month old children living in study area. Besides, Hence, enhancing the household food security and promoting mother to decide lonely or jointly with their husband on issue that affects their own self or child health, resource allocation and freedom of mobility is important to prevent under nutrition in 6-36 month old children.