Abstract:
Introduction: - Malnutrition specifically undernutrition is still devastating public problem
in developing countries particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa including Ethiopia. In
Ethiopia just more than half of all death which occurs before age of five was related
to undernutrition.
Objective: -The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of undernutrition
among under-five children and its associated factors in Gondar city, Northwest
Ethiopia,2014.
Method:-community based cross-sectional study was conducted from March to April
2014.Multistage sampling technique was used to get sample size of 806 participants.
Data was collected by using pre-tested interview based structured questionnaire
and standardized anthropometric equipment. Data was entered into Epi-info
version 3.5.1 and transported to SPSS version 20 software package for analysis. Bivariate
and multivariate logistic regressions were used to identify factors associated
with Undernutrition among under-five children and P-value less than 0.05 was considered
for statistical significance.
Results:-This study showed that, 47%, 17.7% and 7.7 %of under-five children have
stunting, underweight and wasting problem respectively. The main contributing factors
of undernutrition were found to be; monthly income of families (AOR=4.46;
95%CI: 1.43-13.87),birth order of under-five children (AOR=2.02, 95% CI: 1.06-
7.70), sex of children (AOR=2.02; 95% CI: 1.06- 7.70)and maternal educational status
(AOR=1.97; 95% CI:1.15- 3.35).
Conclusion and Recommendation: -In this study the prevalence of undernutrition
was found to be high. Maternal educational status, monthly incomes of the family
and birth order of under-five children were found to be very important factors of undernutrition
among under-five children. Therefore educating mothers, promoting use
of family planning and improving monthly income of households were recommended.
