Mengistu, Zuriyash (MSc, PhD fellow)Abera, Misrak2018-11-192023-11-052018-11-192023-11-052018-03http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/14380Background: Malnutrition is a major public health problem throughout the developing world and a significant factor, approximately one third of, nearly 8 million deaths in children who are under the age of five years worldwide. Despite numerous advances made in improving child health and the clinical management protocols for treating severe acute malnutrition at treatment centers, evidences concerning the treatment outcomes are scarce. Objective: To assess treatment outcomes of severe acute malnutrition and associated factors among children age less than five years in Arsi zone, Ethiopia, 2018. Method: Institution based cross-sectional study design was conducted to collect information from 410 records of severely malnourished children who were admitted from January 2016 to January 2018. Data was entered to EpiData version 3.1 and then exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression model were fitted to identify factors associated with treatment outcomes. Adjusted Odds ratio with its 95% CI is reported and P-value less than 0.05 were considered to declare presence of significant association. Result: A total of 410 records of children with a diagnosis of severe acute malnutrition were reviewed. Of these cases of malnutrition, 83.7% (343) had severe wasting and 16.3% (67) had edematous malnutrition. Regarding treatment outcome, 74.4% were cured while 7.1% had died. The average length of stay was 12.3 and 14 days with an average weight gain of 14.7 and 5 g/kg/d for children with severe wasting and edematous malnutrition, respectively. Taking IV antibiotics plus amoxicillin and having no anemia were factors significantly associated with recovery rate. Conclusion: The recovery rate of severely malnourished children admitted at the three hospitals was 74.4 % is almost equivalent with the standard, least 75 % cure rate. However a high proportion of patients 17.6 % were defaulted from their treatment. Absence of anemia and treatment with IV antibiotic plus amoxicillin were the factors significantly associated with recovery rate. In order to address the high defaulter rate, the health Facilities should design a strategy like home based care through the outpatient therapeutic care should be strengthened.en-USSevere Acute Malnutrition, treatment outcome, ArsiThesis