Risk Factors of Underweight in Children Aged 6-59 Months in Ethiopia

Background. undernutrition in early childhood has irreversible and long-lasting implications. hence,this study was aimed at assessing risk factors of child undernutrition. methods. a community-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 642 households with mothers to children pairs aged 6-59 months selected by a multistage systematic random sampling method. child anthropometric measurements on weight were recorded using standardized and calibrated weighing scales. weight-for-age was compared to the 2007 who growth reference by who anthro software. data were entered using epi-info and analyzed using spss. bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate the association between underweight children and their predictors; both crude and adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence interval were reported. results. one-fourth (25%) of the children were underweight. child age (aor: 2.36),gender (aor: 1.82),illness (aor: 0.09),maternal decision making power (aor: 0.07),maternal education (aor: 0.19),employment/occupation (aor: 5.29),and household income (aor: 4.16) were found to be independent and significant predictors of underweight children. conclusion. significant proportion of the children were underweight. maternal decision-making power persists as a strong predictor of children's weight. therefore,intervention programs focusing on improving mothers' decision-making power on child nutrition would contribute to the efforts towards alleviating the problem. © 2017 deneke tosheno et al.