Determinants of nutritional status of children aged 6-59 months in the case of Itang special woreda, Gambella, Ethiopia
A community-based cross-sectional study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20372/ejphn.V7i2.246Keywords:
Child malnutrition, Anthropometric index, Primary data, Ordinal logistic regression, multilevel ordinal logistic analysisAbstract
Background: Malnutrition remains a major contributor to inadequate physical and mental development in children. This study aims to assess the factors influencing the severity of malnutrition in children aged 6-59 months, using the weight-for-age anthropometric index (z-score), and to explore variations in nutritional status determinants across different kebeles.
Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from October 12 to November 12, 2022. A sample of 397 children aged 6-59 months was selected through a multi-stage clustered sampling technique to capture heterogeneity. Data were collected and entered into SPSS for analysis, which was performed using R version 3.4.0 and STATA 14.2. A multilevel ordinal logistic regression model was applied, with statistical significance set at 5%.
Results: The analysis identified several factors that significantly affect the nutritional status of children, including birth interval, economic status, and maternal employment, type of toilet facilities, household size, breastfeeding practices, paternal education, and geographical location (kebeles). Notably, 15% of the overall variation in malnutrition severity was attributed to kebele-level differences, with a variance estimate of 0.569 and an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.15, derived from the two-level multilevel ordinal logistic regression model.
Conclusion: The random intercept model with random coefficients effectively predicted the severity of malnutrition among children aged 6-59 months. It is recommended that primary health care and nutrition interventions be tailored to address the specific needs of each kebele within Itang Special Woreda to mitigate nutritional deficiencies among children.
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