Abstract:
Background: Childhood under-nutrition is a multi-dimensional problem in developing countries, where inappropriate child caring and feeding practices have been strongly associated with it. In spite of the huge Government investments to reduce childhood under-nutrition, Ngorongoro district still prevalence of under-nutrition in children under-five years of age is fluctuate. Objective: This study aims to identify factors associated with under-nutrition in children under-five years of age in Ngorongoro district, Arusha region. Methodology: Hospital-based unmatched case-control study was conducted from 22 march to 25 April 2017 .Cases are all children aged 6-59 months with under nutrition by WHO anthropometric indicators of weight-for-height < -2SD or weight-for-age < -2SD or height-for-age < -2SD or MUAC <12cm, and simple randomly sampling was used to select the case. Controls were children within the normal range, were selected systematic. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences Institutional Review Board. Mother/caregivers gave informed consent before the study. Structured questioner and anthropometric measurement was used to collect the data moreover Epi-info version 3.5.1 was used to analyze the data. Result: 400 (100 cases and 300 controls) were recruited into the study. Under-nutrition was associated with young age of mother/caregiver (aor=38.8, 95% CI: 15.38-98.03); early age of initiation of complementary food (aor=13.6, 95%CI: 3.15-59.06); a child having diarrhoea in past one month (aor = 4.8; 95%CI: 1.76-12.85); a large family size (aor = 6.0, 95% CI: 2.16-16.90); frequency of feeding per day (aor= 3.9, 95%CI: 1.59-9.58); low birth weight (aor= 7.3, 95%CI: 1.15-46.70); well (aor=16.3, 95%: CI: 1.85-147.05) or surface such as dams, livers and lakes (aor=16.2, 95%CI: 1.85-141.71) as a source of drinking water. Conclusion: Household, individual characteristics of child and mother/caregiver are important predictors of under-nutrition in this community. Interventions should be designed to address these factors to mitigate and eliminate childhood under-nutrition in Ngorongoro.
