Utilization of growth monitoring and promotion services and associated factors among under two years of age children in Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Growth monitoring and promotion (GMP) is a prevention activity comprised of growth monitoring (GM) linked with promotion that serves as the core activity in an integrated child health and nutrition program. However, different methods of institutional studies have shown that utilization of GM services has remained to be inadequate. There is scarcity of studies conducted about GMP in quantitative method. Therefore, this study was conducted to address the proportion of GMP services and associated factors among children under two years of age in rural communities of Mareka district, Southern Ethiopia. Community based cross-sectional survey was conducted from August to September 2015. Single population proportion formula was used to determine the sample size with multi stage sampling technique. A total of 819 children under two years of age were included. Pretest was done on 10% of the total sample size. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 software. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions used to analyze data. The response rate was 95%. Utilization of GMP services was 16.9%. Institutional delivery AOR (95% CI): 3.01(1.65–5.50), index child age 12–17 months AOR (95% CI): 4.03(2.16–7.51) and 18–23 months AOR (95% CI): 3.08(1.70–5.57), family size 4–5 AOR(95% CI): 0.14(0.06–0.33), family size >5 AOR(95% CI): 0.34(0.14–0.82), regular GMP attendance AOR (95% CI): 4.37(2.45–7.80), medium wealth index AOR(95% CI): 3.14(1.51–6.52) and high wealth index AOR(95% CI): 3.24(1.59–6.62) were factors associated with utilization of GMP services. Utilization of GMP services was low. Thus, efforts should be made to improve utilization of GMP services through promotion of institutional delivery, different family planning methods, and regular GMP attendance.

Factors influencing the sustained utilization of child welfare services among children 18 to 59 months in a low-income rural community.

“…Most (83.9%) of the mothers who sort CWC services got to the health facility walking. Drop out increased in families with low income whereas the likelihood of incomplete growth monitoring decreased with increase in household's income (Ekouevi et al, 2018;Sheikh, Sultana, Ali, & Akram, n.d.;Feleke, Adole, & Bezabih, 2017). Health care providers must be stationed closer to the target communities to reduce the likelihood of spending additional money on transport in seeking services within these particular communities.…”

Uptake of routine growth monitoring among children under 9 months in Nyamira County, Kenya

“…This concurs to the findings of another study done in the rural areas of Ethiopia in which caregivers gave various reasons on why they missed growth monitoring sessions as scheduled in their children's clinic cards including: workload, child not sick to seek care and health workers not telling them to attend these sessions. 5 A similar study conducted in Zambia also revealed that growth monitoring had performed poorly because of various reasons such as weak monitoring and supervision, lack of motivational package attached to the growth monitoring programme and poor practices among health workers. 15…”

“…4 Caregivers in the rural areas of Ethiopia gave various reasons on why they missed growth monitoring sessions as scheduled in their children's clinic cards including: workload, child not sick to seek care and health workers not telling them to attend these sessions. 5 A study done in Ghana found out that routine growth monitoring among children offered an opportunity for implementation of interventions aimed at reducing under five mortality rates, infectious diseases and malnutrition. 6 Majority (98.1%) of mothers in Ghana believed that taking their children monthly to the clinic for weight measurement was important.…”

Determinants of growth monitoring and promotion service utilization among children 0-23 months of age in Northern Ethiopia: Unmatched case control study

“…Participation in GMP remains relatively low in Ethiopia. A research ndings from Southern Ethiopia showed that the coverage of GMP service utilization was16.9% in Mareka district [12], and 11% in Butajira [13].…”

“…Previous studies reported that socio-demographic, maternal and health professional related factors in uences GMP service utilization [12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”