Wasting and its associated factors among children aged from 6 to 59 months in Debre Tabor town, Amhara region of Ethiopia, 2019: a multicentre community-based cross-sectional study

Objectives: Wasting is acute malnutrition that has harmful short-term consequences for children and is determined by an inadequate diet. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and associated factors of wasting among children aged 6-59 months in Debre Tabor town, Ethiopia.

Design: This study was a community-based cross-sectional.

Setting: The study was conducted at Debre Tabor town, Ethiopia.

Participants: A total of 436 children aged 6-59 months participants were enrolled.

Outcome measures: A weight-for-height z-score, which is below -2 SD of the WHO median standard curve, was used to measure wasting. Logistic regression analyses were done to see which independent variables have an association with the dependent variable and a p value of <0.05 was considered significant at the 95% CI.

Results: The result revealed that wasting in children aged 6-59 months was 6.2%. Children in the age group of 6-11 months were 4.3 times more likely to have wasted than those in the age group of 24-59 months (adjusted OR (AOR): 4.3; 95% CI: 1.5 to 12.5). Similarly, parents who have poor wealth status in their family are 3.1 times more likely to have wasted children than those who have rich wealth status in their family (AOR: 3.1 (1.01 to 9.35)). Moreover, mothers who gave birth at the age group of 20-25 years were 4.3 times more likely to have wasted children than those who gave birth at an age group of greater than 30 years (AOR: 4.3 (4.3 (1.56 to 12.5)).

Conclusion: Wasting is still an important public health problem for children in the age group of 6-59 months. The age of the child, the wealth status of the family, and giving birth before 20 years of age were significantly associated with wasting. Therefore, the government of Ethiopia should pay further attention to the wealth status of the family; create awareness among the mothers regarding childhood undernutrition care, and design further nutritional intervention programmes.