Risk factors associated with stunting and wasting levels among under five children in Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Stunting defined as a deficit in height relative to a child’s age. Childhood stunting is one of the most significant impediments to human development. Stunting is a major health problem in children under-five years in many low and middle income countries around the world. Wasting is sometimes referred to as acute malnutrition because it is believed that episodes of wasting have a short duration, in contrast to stunting, which is regarded as chronic malnutrition. Method: The data for the study were taken from Ethiopian Demographic Health Survey (EDHS) of year 2011. For stunting levels parallel line assumption of proportional odds model is violated. Thus, Partial proportional odds model were preferred over proportional odds model, generalized ordered logit model and multinomial logistic regression based on Akaike’s Information Criterion evidence. Proportional odds model is used to analyze wasting levels since the parallel assumption of proportional odds model is not violated. Result: The result indicate that age of child in month, region, place of residence, wealth index, mothers BMI, birth order of child, incidence of diarrhea for two weeks preceding the survey, incidence of fever for two weeks before survey, mothers and husband/partner educational levels are significantly associated with stunting levels. The result also shows that age of child, wealth index, mothers nutritional status, sex of child, incidence of diarrhea and fever for two weeks before survey, type of toilet, husbands/partner and employment status of mothers are significantly associated with wasting levels. Government and other stake holders have to give different priorities to different children age group, family background in terms of their mothers/fathers education level, mother’s nutritional status, incidence of diarrhea and fever, household wealth status to control the severity level of children stunting and wasting. Children in rural areas are more likely to be stunted than children in urban areas so special attention should be given for the residence difference.