Abstract:
Introduction: - Non-pregnant and non-lactating women are the most vulnerable and
neglected segments in most society. Most countries work exhaustively to reduce
maternal and child death only by taking an intervention on pregnant and lactating
women. However, the non-pregnant and non-lactating women are the best window
of opportunity to implement strategies, to correct maternal and child death and
improve good pregnancy outcomes especially in Ethiopia.
Objective: To assess the prevalence of chronic energy deficiency and associated
factors among rural women (18-49 ages) in Mirab-Badwacho Woreda, Southern
Ethiopia, 2014
Methods: A community based cross sectional study design was employed from
April to May 2014. Multi stage sampling technique was used to select 636 nonpregnant
and non-lactating women. Data were collected by structured questionnaire
using 10 BSc nurses as data collectors. Cleaned data were entered to EPI-info 3.5.3
and export to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Descriptive static was done; and the
association between the dependent and independent variables were measured
using OR at 95% confidence Interval. Those variables with p-value of less than 0.05
in the multivariate analysis were considered as significant.
Results: The overall prevalence of chronic energy deficiency in this study was
35.2% (95% CI: 31.5%, 38.9%). Age of the respondent (AOR=1.91, 95% CI: 1.06,
3.46), family size (AOR= 1.61, 95% CI: 1.14, 2.27), frequency of feeding in the past
24 hour (AOR=3.18, 95% CI: 1.26, 8.05). Treating water for drinking (AOR=1.82,
95% CI: 1.11, 3.08), and history of maternal illness (AOR=1.60, 95% CI: 1.13, 2.26)
were significantly associated with women chronic energy deficiency.
Conclusion and recommendation: chronic energy deficiency was found to be high
prevalence in the study area. Therefore, sustained health and nutrition education is
recommended to the communities on family planning and health care practice and
proper water treatment in order to improve health and nutrition outcomes of nonpregnant
and non-lactating women.
