Assessment of wasting and associated factors among under five children of Wukro town, Tigray regional, North Ethiopia: a cross sectional study

Introduction: Globally, 50 million children under 5 were wasted; of which 16 million were severely wasted. A severely wasted child is at a nine times higher risk of dying. To prevent this problem, it is necessary to determine the magnitude and factors associated with childhood wasting. In Ethiopia specifically Wukro town, Tigray regional state there is no clear information regarding under five wasting. Therefore, the study assessed the prevalence and associated factors of wasting among under five children in Wukro town, North Ethiopia. Objective: to assess the prevalence of wasting and associated factors among under five children of Wukro town, Tigray, North Ethiopia, 2017/2018. Methods: Community based cross-sectional study design with a single population proportion formula was used with a total sample size of 400 children. Wukro town has three kebele, two kebelle were included in the study through simple random sampling method. There was proportional allocation of subjects to each kebelle and final study subject was selected using systematic method. In case there were more than one child in the household one child was selected randomly. The data were collected by face to face interview and measuring of weight and height after the instrument was pre-tested. The anthropometric results were entered in to Emergency nutritional assessment (ENA) to calculate Z-Score. The collected data and result of Z-score were entered in to Statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 20. Finally, results were presented in texts, graphs and tables. Results: A total of 394 under five children were participated in this study, which gave a response rate of 98.5%. The respondents were females 222 (56.3%) and 106(26.95%) were in the age group of 12-23 month. The overall prevalence of wasting was 28 (7.2%). Out of this 14 (3.6%) were wasted and 14 (3.6%) were severely wasted. Under five children those, whose family does not live together were 3.086 times more likely to be wasted compared to under five children those, whose family live together (P=.038, OR=3.086, & 95% CI= (1.061, 8.970). Under five children those, whose mother did not taken family planning were 2.530 times more likely to be wasted compared to under five children those, whose mother take family planning (P=.038, OR=2.530, & 95% CI= (1.054, 6.074)). Conclusion: Significant numbers of mothers were not taken extra food during pregnancy and lactation. There was significant prevalence of wasting of under five children in the study area. Living condition of family and usage of family planning were associated with increased risk of wasting.