Prevalence and Determinants of Childhood Stunting among Children Aged 6–59 Months in Pawie District, Northwest Ethiopia: A Community Based Study

Abstract

Introduction: Childhood stunting has remained as a major public health problem for decades in developing countries, including Ethiopia. This study was carried out to assess prevalence and determinant factors associated with stunting among children aged 6–59 months in Pawie district, Northwest Ethiopia. Methods: Community based cross–sectional study was conducted from March to April/2019. Data was collected by an interviewer administered, pre–tested and structured questionnaire. A multi-stage sampling followed by a systematic sampling technique was used to include participants. Anthropometric body measurement of “Height/Length and Age” was assessed to determine child stunting. The measurements were analyzed by the WHO ANTHRO software. Stunting was defined as having of “Height–for–Age” Z–score (HAZ) lower than minus two standard deviations (HAZ <−2 SD) compared to the WHO reference population of the same age and sex group. Data was entered into Epi–Info–7 and exported to SPSS version 20 for further analysis. Variables with P–Values of < 0.2 in the bivariate analysis were transferred to the multivariate analysis. Both Crude Odds Ratio (COR) and Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with a 95% Confidence Interval (CI) were computed to determine the level of significance. Finally, all factors at P–Values of < 0.05 in the multivariate regression analysis were declared as determinants of stunting. Results: A total of 841 children aged 6–59 months were included in the study. All the interviews were carried out with mothers of study subjects. The overall prevalence of stunting was 37.2% [95% CI: 33.9-40.49. Child age [AOR= 2.0, 95% CI: 1.14, 3.47], colostrum feeding [AOR= 2.5, 95% CI: 1.31, 4.85], malaria infection [AOR= 1.9, 95% CI: 1.26, 2.86] and meal frequency [AOR= 1.9, 95% CI: 1.08, 3.18], maternal level of education [AOR= 5.2, 95% CI: 1.21, 22.10] and employment status [AOR= 4.9, 95% CI: 1.72, 14.39] were independently associated with stunting in the study area. Conclusions: Childhood stunting was important public health problem in the study area. It was significantly associated with child age, colostrum feeding, malaria infection and meal frequency in the past 24 hours, maternal education and employment status. Improving maternal education, and age-appropriate child feeding and health care utilization practices are vital interventions to decrease burden of childhood chronic under nutrition in Northwest Ethiopia.