PREVALENCE OF CHRONIC ENERGY DEFICIENCY AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG NON-PREGNANT AND NON-LACTATING RURAL WOMEN OF AGE GROUP (18-49 YEARS) IN MIRAB-BADWACHO WOREDA, SOUTH ETHIOPIA

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.