Assesment of Nutritional Status among Under-Five Children in Bishoftutown, Oromiya Region, Ethiopia 2006 e.c.

Abstract

Globally malnutrition is one factor which contributes to over 6 million under five children death. In developing countries 140 million under five children are underweight and 60 million under five children are wasted.  So we plan to assess the prevalence and associated factors of under nutrition among children of under- five years of age in Bishoftu Town, 2014 G.C.

Methods and Material: A cross-sectional community based study design was employed to assess the nutritional status of under -five children. systematic simple random sampling techniques to select the children. Weighting scale and Anthropometry were used for quantitative data measurements of body dimensions and determinant factors. The study included a total of 361 under five children out of which 198 (54.8%) were males and 163 (45.2%) were females. According to the NCHS the study children of who fell below -2SD of the indicators (underweight, stunted and wasted) were 25.2%, 38.8% and 46.3% respectively. Out of the 361 children who measured their MUAC, most of them (53.2%) were normal(> =13cm), 3.6% were severely malnourished(<11cm) and 18.6% moderately malnourished(11-12cm).

Conclusions: Under nutrition especially stunting is a serious public health problem among under-five children in the study area. Therefore, HEW should work hard on nutrition education at community level for increasing mother's awareness related to risk factors of under nutrition.