Prevalence and Factors Associated with Stunting among Children 6-59 Months in Pawie District, Benishangul Gumuz, Northwest Ethiopia: A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study

Background: In low-income countries including Ethiopia, Stunting remains a major public health problem. It contributes to 50% of all deaths in under-five children and results in diminished mental and physical development. Most studies indicated that stunting is associated with low socio-economic status, educational level of parents, poor water supply and sanitation, and highly infectious diseases burden. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and factors associated with stunting among children 6-59 Months in Pawie, Ethiopia.

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 1st to April 1st, 2016 among 841 children 6-59 months. An anthropometric measurement was taken for all children to determine their nutritional status but demographic, clinical and associated factor data were obtained through face to face interview with the mother of the child using a structured questionnaire. The quality of data was assured through translation, retranslation and pretesting of the questionnaire and through training. Before analysis, the data was cleaned thoroughly to check for completeness. Then, entered into Epi info v7 and export to SPSS v25 for analyses. Frequencies, mean, SD, percentage and cross-tabulations were used to summarize descriptive statistics of the data. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression were employed to see the associated factors of stunting. Lastly, results were presented using tables, charts, graphs, and result statements

Results: A total of 841 respondents were included in this study with a 99% response rate. The prevalence of stunting among children 6-59 months was 37.2% (95% CI: 33.9-40.4). From these, half (50.1%) of them were females. Child age (AOR =1.988 [95% CI: 1.140, 3.465]), maternal education (AOR = 5.164 [95% CI: 1.207, 22.099]), maternal occupation (AOR= 4.975[95% CI: 1.720, 14.385]), episodes of malaria (AOR= 1.900 [95% CI: 1.262, 2.862]), colostrum feeding (AOR= 2.519[95% CI: 1.310, 4.846]) and meal frequency (AOR= 1.857 [95% CI: 1.084,3.179]) were factors significantly associated with stunting.