Undernutrition and associated factors among children aged 6–59 months living in slum areas of Gondar city, northwest Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundMany people, especially in developing countries such as Ethiopia, are migrating to cities. The majority of these people have settled in slum areas, which often have poor sanitation and housing conditions. Therefore, this study was conducted to gather evidence on nutritional status and associated factors among children aged 6–59 months living in slum areas of Gondar city, northwest Ethiopia.MethodsA community-based cross-sectional study was carried out from 3 to 28 May 2017. A total of 593 children from the slum areas aged 6–59 months were included in the study. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were carried out to identify the independent determinants of stunting and wasting.ResultsThe overall prevalences of stunting and wasting were 42.3% (95% CI 38.34, 46.3%) and 7.3% (95% CI 5.3, 9.4%), respectively. Poor wealth status (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] =1.79; 95% CI 1.19, 2.70) and age of child 24–35 months (AOR=2.56; 95% CI 1.32, 4.96), 36–47 months (AOR=2.27; 95% CI 1.14, 4.54) and 48–59 months (AOR=2.69; 95% CI 1.35, 5.32) were independently associated with stunting. Similarly, presence of a fever in the previous 2 weeks (AOR=2.29; 95% CI 1.20, 4.38) and paternal control over resources (AOR=3.66; 95% CI 1.12, 11.04) were associated with wasting. Children of uneducated mothers (AOR=3.30; 95% CI 1.29, 8.46) were also more likely to be wasted.ConclusionThis study illustrates that undernutrition is prevalent in the slum areas of Gondar city and is a critical public health problem. Therefore, attention should be targeted at economically disadvantaged children living in slum areas. In addition, there is a need to improve medical awareness of families with young children in these areas and increase the health-seeking behavior of these families, primarily by focusing on maternal education. Increasing women’s decision-making autonomy over household resources is also recommended to address the problem.

Lowest wealth quintiles predispose under-five children to stunting in Ethiopia: Updates of systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Finally, 40 articles remained for this review and meta-analysis (21,22,38,. Of these 40 studies, 35 of the studies were used in assessing the pooled prevalence of stunting (21, 22, 38, 51-58, 60, 61, 63-77, 79, 80, 82, 84-87), and 16 of the studies were used to estimate the effect of wealth index on stunting (51,52,57,61,66,69,72,73,75,76,78,79,(81)(82)(83)(84).Of the 16 papers that used to estimate the effect of wealth index on stunting, four were not used in calculating the pooled prevalence of stunting (78,79,81,83).…”

“…However, all the other studies were conducted on children aged 6 to 59 months old. Nine studies were from Amhara (21,38,61,72,75,76,80,82,85) and SNNPR regions (53,55,57,63,69,71,74,78,79). Studies in other regions included from Oromia (n=7) (22,51,54,62,67,73,83), Tigray (n=3) (60,65,66), Somalia(n=2) (52,70), Benishangul-Gumz(n=1) (84), and Afar(n=2) (64,77), and six studies were nation-based (56,58,68,81,86,87)(Table1).…”

“…Studies in other regions included from Oromia (n=7) (22,51,54,62,67,73,83), Tigray (n=3) (60,65,66), Somalia(n=2) (52,70), Benishangul-Gumz(n=1) (84), and Afar(n=2) (64,77), and six studies were nation-based (56,58,68,81,86,87)(Table1). Three of the studies did not report sex of the study population, children (62,63,82), but all the other studies reported the sex of the children. Accordingly, boys contributed to 65.2% (33,533) (Table1) of the population.…”

“…With regard to the effect estimation of the associations, the sample size ranged from 214 to 7452 participants. The response rate of the studies used for effect estimation in assessing the associations was 91.9%, and all the studies were conducted in the community (51,52,57,61,66,69,72,73,75,76,78,79,(81)(82)(83)(84).…”

“…Considering this associations between stunting and wealth index, one of the papers studied used a cohort design (83), two of the papers studied used a case control design (66,78), and the remaining 13 studies used cross-sectional design. Six of the studies (61,72,75,76,78,82) were from Amhara region, three were from SNNPR region (57,69,79), three from Oromia region (51,73,83), one from Tigray region (66), one from Somalia region (52), and one from Benishangul-Gumuz region (84), while one study was a nation-based (Ethiopia) (81)(Table1, and Table2). More important descriptions for this review came from a study by Behailu et al that used a comparative cross-sectional design and reported two prevalence values and two odds ratio (OR) values.…”