Prevalence of stunting and associated factors among Under five children in community of gilgel gibe field Research center, south west ethiopia: a community Based cross sectional study

Abstract

Background: Stunting reflects chronic under nutrition during the most critical periods of growth and development in early life. Eventhough there is an ongoing worldwide effort that focused on reduction of stunting related problem, the burden of stunting among under-five year children is still a major public health problem, especially in developing countries. Objectives: This study was aimed to assess prevalence of stunting and associated factors among under-five year children in communities of Gilgel Gibe Field Research Center, South West, Ethiopia, 2022. Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted among 554 children of under- five year. A systematic random sampling technique was employed. An Interviewer administered structured questionnaires were used to collect data. Data were entered using Epi data version3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 25 and World Health Organization Anthro software version 3.2.2 to generate Z-score values. The results were summarized in the form of texts, figures and tables. Bivariate analysis was applied to select candidate variables for the final model. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was applied to identify factors significantly associated with stunting. Statistical significance was declared at p<0.05 and 95%CI. Result: - The overall magnitude of stunting was 195(35.2%), of which 105(53.8%) were female. The mean age of stunted children was 28.84 months (± SD 13.87). Children within age group 6- 11 months (AOR; 3.86, 95%, CI 1.51-9.87), children whose mothers had completed primary education (AOR =0.48, 95% CI 0.30-0.78), children from a mother who is merchant(AOR =0.59, 95% CI 0.39-0.89) and time of breast feeding initiation after birth(AOR = 2.34, 95% CI 1.53– 3.58) were significantly associated with stunting compared with counterpart. Conclusion: Stunting was a highly prevalent problem in the study area with child’s age, mother’s education, mother’s occupation, and time of imitating breast feed after birth were found to be associated factors of stunting. Therefore, this study recommends intervention focusing on encouraging maternal education, promoting immediate breast feeding after birth and child age specific attention