Abstract:
Back ground: Food insecurity and consequent malnutrition are major barriers to
development in Ethiopia. High malnutrition rates in the country pose a significant
obstacle to achieving better child health outcomes. This study tried to explore the
prevalence of household food insecurity and malnutrition among children aged 6 to 59
months, as well as the association between these two factors.
Objective: To assess the prevalence of household food insecurity and its association with
nutritional status of children aged 6-59 months in Hosanna Town, Hadiya zone.
Methods: A cross sectional study design was employed to assess prevalence of household
food insecurity and nutritional status of children in Hossana Town. 414 study subjects were
involved in the study. Before data collection list of households with eligible children were
identified from HEWs data and proportionate to sample size allocation was employed to
each kebele. Sample households were selected from each kebele using systematic random
sampling method by calculating the sampling interval k=4. The data were entered; cleaned
and analyzed using SPSS Version 16.Anthropometric data were entered in WHO anthro
software version 3.2.2.The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics; Bivariate and
multivariable logistic regression were done to see the association between dependent and
independent variables.
Results: The result of this study shows 8% of children are wasted, 14.4 % were
underweight and 43.3 % were stunted. Prevalence of Household food insecurity was 79.1
%. Household food insecurity was associated with underweight. Child age and child sex
were associated with stunting. Large family size and diarrhea in the last two weeks
preceding the survey were associated with wasting and underweight respectively.
Conclusions: Household food insecurity and Malnutrition as measured by underweight,
wasting and stunting was high in Hossana Town. Household food insecurity was associated
with underweight, but not significantly associated with stunting and wasting. Intervention
initiatives should focus on improving household food insecurity and nutritional status
