Stunting Status of Under-Five Children in Rural Ethiopia: Multilevel Logistic Regression Analysis
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Date
2014-05
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Addis Abeba university
Abstract
Stunting is a well-established child health indicator for chronic malnutrition related to
environmental and socio-economic circumstances (WHO, 1995 and 1996). According to the
2011 EDHS report by the Ethiopia CSA, nationally, 44 percent of children under age five are
stunted, and 21 percent of children are severely stunted. This study aimed to identify socioeconomic
and demographic determinants of under-five child stunting in rural Ethiopia using
EDHS 2011 data. In order to achieve our objective descriptive, cross-tabulation, binary logistic
regression and multilevel logistic regression statistical techniques were used for data analysis
using socio-economic, demographic and health and environmental variables as explanatory
variables, and status of stunting as the response variable. The results of the analysis show that
age of child, mother’s educational level, wealth index, employment status of mother, source of
drinking water, types of toilet facilities, had diarrhea two weeks before the survey, had fever two
weeks before the survey, educational level of partner and geographical region were found to be
significant determinants of stunting status of under-five children in rural Ethiopia. The result
also suggested that children from poor families were more likely to be stunted than children from
rich families in rural Ethiopia. It is found that children from uneducated mothers are at higher
risk of stunting. It is recommended that design and implement primary health care and nutrition
programs which would fit the features of each region to safeguard children from nutritional
deficiency
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Regression Analysis