Determinants of Stunting Among Children Age 6-59 Months, Siraro District, West Arsi Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Background: High level child stunting, Height for age measurement less than negative two standard deviation is 38%. It has significant effect on schooling, productivity, physical fitness, human resources and Loss of National economy. Children ages 6-59month are the most affected groups due to child hood infections, maternal health condition, in adequate dietary intake and poor child caring practice. However, there is insufficient information on determinant factors contributing for stunting. Therefore, identifying determinants of stunting among children aged 6-59 month would help to set priorities for action and to the design of stunting reduction plan at a grass roots level.Objectives: To identify determinants of stunting among Children aged 6-59 months in Siraro District.Methods: The unmatched Facility based case control study design was conducted in randomly selected 5 health facilities of Siraro District from August 01, 2019 to October 30, 2019. From 357 study subjects which 119 are cases and 238 controls were chosen by using anthropometric measurement based on the median of WHO 2006 reference population. Anthro-plus software was used to identify the anthropometric measurements of the child and a structured questionnaire which was primarily developed in English and translated to Afan Oromo was used for data collection. The collected data were entered using Epi-deta version3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Logistic regression was used to determine the association between dependent and independent variables. In bi-variable analysis co-variates with P-value of less than 0.25 was included in multivariable analysis. The final model was interpreted using AOR with 95%; CI at P-value of less than 0.05. Results: Age started supplementary feeding at 6 months with (AOR=2.54 95% CI ((1.01-6.42)), Childs mother has no Antenatal visit (AOR=2.39(95%; (1.15-4.97)), Children with poor Food Consumption Score were (AOR=3.48; 95 %;( 1.82-6.65)), Children’s with poor protein rich food Frequency Score were 3.74 times (AOR=3.74; 95%; 2.10-6.75)) were significantly associated with stunting.Conclusion; Factors like Age started supplementary feeding at less than six month, mother has no antenatal visit, poor food consumption score, poor protein rich food frequency score could be used to set priorities for action and design of stunting reduction. Therefore, zonal health department and Siraro Woreda health office should promote the importance of supplementary feeding at age of 6 months. Strengthening antenatal care service at a grass root level and promote antenatal visit of mothers. Enhance an appropriate complementary feeding practice and providing sufficient energy and protein reach food is important. Keywords: Stunting; Malnutrion; Determinants; among under five children DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/74-01 Publication date:May 31st 2020