Background: Severe acute malnutrition is an underlying
cause for the deaths of more than 3.5 million children under
the age of 5 each year worldwide. Interaction of sociodemographic,
nutritional, and child health related factors
influences on occurrence of malnutrition is not investigated in
the current study area. Therefore this study is under taken to fill
this gap in Konso district Southern Ethiopia.
Objective: To determine the determinant factors associated
with malnutrition among children aged six month to fifty nine
months in Konso and to provide information useful to better
control this chronic problem.
Methods: Case-control study was conducted on 300
malnourished children (cases) and 531 children who were not
malnourished (controls). Data was collected by using pretested
and structured questionnaires. Data was entered in to EPI INFO
version 7 and exported to SPSS version 20 for further analysis.
Frequency and cross tabulation was conducted to describe relevant
variables in relation to the outcome variables; multivariate logistic
regression analysis was conducted to identify significant predictors
based on p-value less than 0.05 with 95% confidence level.
Results: A total of 831 participants (300 with severe acute
malnutrition and 531 no malnutrition for each) were enrolled
in the study. The identified determinant factors for severe acute
malnutrition was maternal literacy (AOR 0.14, 95% CI=0.03,
0.49), large family size (AOR 1.43, 95% CI 1.12, 1.82),
pregnancy, short birth interval, increased age of child (AOR
1.23, 95% CI, 1.02, 1.48), and frequency of complementary
diet feeding (AOR 0.67, 95% CI: 0.53, 0.85) were significant
factors in multivariate logistic analysis.
Conclusion and recommendation: Socioeconomic and
demographic variables have a significant influence on the odds
of malnutrition in children. Continuous BCC and ACC Health
education program should be strengthened and the program
should focus on nutritional and child care practices to prevent
and control childhood malnutrition. Special attention should
be given for illiterate, large family size, low birth interval and
for higher child age mothers during community based nutrition
intervention.