Undernutrition and its determinants among daily laborers working in Cobblestone project in Ethiopia

Background Undernutrition is among the most significant public health problems in the world. It is an important underlying cause of illness and death in Africa and imposes a huge cost both in human and economic terms. The aim of this study is to assess the level of undernutrition and its determinants among daily laborers working in cobblestone projects, Yeka Sub City, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods A workplace-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 423 cobblestone daily laborers from February 20 to April 1, 2015. Systematic random sampling method was employed (with proportional allocation) in three cobblestone project sites. An interviewer-administered questionnaire and anthropometric measurements (weight and height) were used to collect the data. The data was entered by Epi Info version 3.5.3 then transferred to SPSS version 20 for data analysis. Results Overall, 423 respondents (of which 300, or 71%, were male) participated in this study, making the response rate 100%. Among the study participants, 141 (33.3%; 95% CI: 28.8 - 38.0) were underweight (BMI<18.50). Males were more likely to experience underweight than their female counterparts: 112 (37.3%) versus 29 (23.6%). Educational status, family size, income, dietary diversity and smoking had statistical significance with undernutrition in multivariate analysis. Study participants who had no education were significantly more likely to be undernourished [AOR = 7.83; 95% CI (3.78, 16.22)] compared with those above secondary level education. Daily laborers with a larger family size (≥3) were three times [AOR=2.88; 95%CI; 1.54-5.40] more likely to be undernourished compared to low family size (≤2). Daily laborers who had low monthly income (