ABSTRACT
Background: One of the most frequent reasons for children's poor physical and mental development is malnutrition, becoming a more significant issue in most developing nations, including Ethiopia. Prior research used multiple anthropometric measurements separately to pinpoint undernutrition concerns in children. However, the impact of each explanatory variable on a single response category was not considered in these investigations. This study used a single composite index of anthropometric parameters to identify the factors affecting elementary school students' nutritional condition. Methods: In Dilla, Ethiopia, 494 primary school students took part in a cross-sectional institutional survey during the 2021 academic year. Principal component analysis was used to create a single composite measure of nutritional status using z-scores for the anthropometric indices of height-for-age and body mass index-for-age. The relative effectiveness of a partial proportional odds model was compared with several other ordinal regression models to identify the important variables for children's nutritional status. Results: 27.94% of primary school students were undernourished (7.29% severely and 20.65% moderately). According to the fitted partial proportional odds model, the mother's education level (secondary or higher) was positively correlated with the nutritional status of primary school students, given that in this case the students ate three or more times per day and had a high dietary diversity score (OR = 5.94; CI: 2.2-16.0). Nevertheless, there was a negative correlation between larger family size (OR = 0.56; CI: 0.32-0.97), unprotected groundwater (OR = 0.76; CI: 0.6-0.96), and severely food insecure households (OR = 0.3; CI: 0.14-0.68). Conclusion: In Dilla, Ethiopia, undernutrition among primary school students is a serious issue. It is essential to implement nutrition education and school feeding programs, improve drinking water sources, and boost the community's economy to alleviate the problems.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Adequate infant and young child feeding during the first 1000 days of life is very essential to improve child health, survival, growth, and development through minimum dietary diversity (MDD). Hence, this study aimed to assess MDD and its multi-level factors among infants and young children aged 6-23 months in Ethiopia. METHODS: Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS-2016) data was used to identify both individual and community-level factors of dietary diversity. Weighted samples of 2,962 children were eligible and a multi-level regression model was used for the analysis. Finally, factors with a P-value of <0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The prevalence of MDD among children in Ethiopia was 12.09%. According to this study, factors such as having a mother who attended higher education (AOR = 3.09, (95% CI; _1.67-5.71)), being a female household head (AOR = 0.62, (95% CI; _0.40-0.95)), having a mother's agricultural occupation (AOR = 1.89, (95% CI; _1.10-3.23)) and living in the household in the richest wealth index were significantly associated at the individual level. At the community level, children living in rural areas (AOR = 0.62, 95% CI; 0.39-0.98) were significant risk factors for MDD (AOR = 0.62, 95% CI; 0.39-0.98). CONCLUSION: The educational and occupational status of the mother, wealth index, and region were significantly associated with MDD. Hence, strengthening of the existing nutritional intervention is helpful to increase diversified food consumption among children.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Vaccination is, without doubt, one of the most outstanding health interventions in reducing unprecedented damages of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Globally, several vaccines have been produced to be effective against COVID-19. This survey aimed to assess the demand and intent towards the COVID-19 vaccine among the general population in Ethiopia. Also, factors influencing their demand, intention, and willingness to pay for the COVID-19 vaccine were described, which is poorly understood in resource-limited settings. METHODS: Subjects were 1160 individuals who completed an online questionnaire from February to March 2021. The study used the health belief model (HBM) to evaluate participants' intention to receive and willingness to pay (WTP) regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. Chi-square and binary logistic regression were conducted to identify the prevalence and associated factors of demand and WTP. Multinomial regression was done to examine the intent to receive a vaccine. RESULTS: In total 1116 responses were collected. The results indicated a moderate level of demand and WTP among participants (64.7% and 56.0%, respectively). Further, the researchers examined participants' readiness towards COVID-19 vaccination, where 46.6% of participants had a definite intent, and close to half of the participants are unsure (32.8%) or unwilling (20.7%) to get vaccinated. Among other factors, items under perceived susceptibility and perceived benefits constructs in the HBM have been associated with participants' demand, willingness to vaccinate, and WTP. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates the usefulness of the HBM model in evaluating the demand, intention, and willingness of participants to pay for COVID-19. Improving public awareness of the vulnerability should be a major point of attention to reduce the barriers, and improve demand and intention for COVID-19. Moreover, public health messages should be tailored to enhance vaccine literacy.
