Under nutrition and Associated Factors among Adult Prisoners in Jimma Zone Prisons, Southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Undernutrition among adult prisoners is major public health issue. Undernutrition is an important underlying cause of illness and death in Africa especially among prisoners. Inadequate nutrition causes acute and chronic nutritional deficiency diseases, health issues and fatalities. Evidences of undernutrition in prison setting of Sub-Saharan Africa developing countries like Ethiopia are limited, but required for management and prevention of undernutrion. Objective The aim of study is to assess the magnitude of undernutrition and associated factors among prisoners in Jimma zone prisons2021. Methods: Cross sectional study, design was used on randomly selected 660 prisoners with response rate 98.18%.in Jimma zones prisons from September to December 2020. Systematic sampling method was applied to get study subject. An interviewer-administered structured questionnaire and Anthropometric (weight and height) measurement was done. Data were entered to epi data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 25.0 for further analysis. Descriptive statics was done, bivariable analysis was used to choose candidate variables with a cutoff of 0.25 p- value, multivariable logistic regression analysis was done to determine factors associated with undernutrition and adjusted odds ratios (AORs) with 95% confidence interval was estimated and reported to measure the strength of the association. Level of statistical significance was declared at p value less than 0.05. Narration and table was used to present the result. Result-The magnitude of undernutrition among prisoners was 19.90%, (95% CI: (16.90%, 23.20%). Being farmer before imprisonment increase risk of undernutrition by 2 folds [(AOR= 2.75, 95%CI :(1.13, 6.68)], duration of imprison stay 37-48 increase risk of undernutrition by 2 folds [(AOR= 2.65; 95%CI :(1.02, 6.87)], > 200 Km distance of prison setting from family home [(AOR= 2.91; 95% CI: ( 1.47, 5.70)] , poor social support [(AOR= 3.17, 95% CI;( 1.27,7.87)] and severe depression symptoms [(AOR=3.39; 95% CI :(1.94, 5.94)], poor food diversity [(AOR= 2.26, 95% CI: ( 1.26,4.06)] were factors significantly associated with undernutrition. Conclusion:-This study finding shows that the magnitude of undernutrition among prisoners were lower than study done in other country, but almost comparable with previous study done so far in Ethiopia. Being farmers before imprisonment, duration of stay, distance from their home /family home, poor social support level; severe depression and poor food diversity were significantly associated with undernutrition. Prison administration , family and health sectors should provide support and treat current undernutrition and prevent further occurrence among those who were farmers before imprisonment and for those staying more than three in imprison, those from high distance (>200km) and has severe depressive symptoms.