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The prevalence of undernutrition among students attending traditional Ethiopian orthodox Tewahedo church schools in northwest Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Undernutrition is a major public health concern affecting the health, growth, development, and academic performance of adolescents studying in school. During this crucial period, dietary patterns have a vital impact on lifetime nutritional status and health. The problem of undernutrition...

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Autores principales: Shiferaw, Yalelet Fentaw, Asmamaw, Desale Bihonegn, Engidaw, Melaku Tadege, Belay, Daniel Gashaneh, Birhan, Haileyesus, Negash, Wubshet Debebe
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10351981/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37465167
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1124173
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author Shiferaw, Yalelet Fentaw
Asmamaw, Desale Bihonegn
Engidaw, Melaku Tadege
Belay, Daniel Gashaneh
Birhan, Haileyesus
Negash, Wubshet Debebe
author_facet Shiferaw, Yalelet Fentaw
Asmamaw, Desale Bihonegn
Engidaw, Melaku Tadege
Belay, Daniel Gashaneh
Birhan, Haileyesus
Negash, Wubshet Debebe
author_sort Shiferaw, Yalelet Fentaw
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Undernutrition is a major public health concern affecting the health, growth, development, and academic performance of adolescents studying in school. During this crucial period, dietary patterns have a vital impact on lifetime nutritional status and health. The problem of undernutrition among particular groups of adolescents attending traditional schools has not previously been studied. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of undernutrition and associated factors among adolescents aged 10–19 years attending Orthodox Church schools in northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: An institution-based, cross-sectional study design was employed, with data collected from March 1 to 30, 2021. A simple random sampling technique was used to recruit a total of 848 male attendees of traditional schools. Data were collected via an interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaire. The nutritional status of participants was assessed using anthropometric measurements. The WHO Anthroplus software was used for analysis. Both bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify the factors associated with nutritional status. The degree of association between the independent variables and the dependent variable was assessed using odds ratios, reported with 95% confidence intervals, and a threshold of p ≤ 0.05. RESULTS: The prevalence of undernutrition was found to be 61.3% [95% CI: 58.1, 64.6]. The likelihood of developing undernutrition was elevated among those adolescents who were following the traditional school levels of dikuna (AOR = 4.3, 95% CI = 1.3, 13.6), kinne (AOR = 4.5, 95% CI = 1.4, 14.6), aquaquame (AOR = 9.9, 95% CI = 2.5, 39.88), tirguame (AOR = 6.4, 95% CI = 1.6, 25.6), and among those whose mothers had no formal education [AOR = 3.7, 95% CI: 1.2, 12.8]. In contrast, those adolescents who always washed their hands after a toilet visit had lower odds of undernutrition than their counterparts [AOR = 0.7, 95%CI: 0.5, 0.98]. CONCLUSION: More than three out of five participating male adolescents were undernourished. Thus, to improve the nutritional status of adolescents studying in traditional church schools, extensive health education for these adolescents is essential. Moreover, the establishment of well-resourced traditional religious school, equipped for the provision of an adequate, diversified diet, is important. Developing the habit of handwashing after visiting the toilet and before and after food preparation is also recommended for adolescent students.
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spelling pubmed-103519812023-07-18 The prevalence of undernutrition among students attending traditional Ethiopian orthodox Tewahedo church schools in northwest Ethiopia Shiferaw, Yalelet Fentaw Asmamaw, Desale Bihonegn Engidaw, Melaku Tadege Belay, Daniel Gashaneh Birhan, Haileyesus Negash, Wubshet Debebe Front Public Health Public Health BACKGROUND: Undernutrition is a major public health concern affecting the health, growth, development, and academic performance of adolescents studying in school. During this crucial period, dietary patterns have a vital impact on lifetime nutritional status and health. The problem of undernutrition among particular groups of adolescents attending traditional schools has not previously been studied. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of undernutrition and associated factors among adolescents aged 10–19 years attending Orthodox Church schools in northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: An institution-based, cross-sectional study design was employed, with data collected from March 1 to 30, 2021. A simple random sampling technique was used to recruit a total of 848 male attendees of traditional schools. Data were collected via an interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaire. The nutritional status of participants was assessed using anthropometric measurements. The WHO Anthroplus software was used for analysis. Both bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify the factors associated with nutritional status. The degree of association between the independent variables and the dependent variable was assessed using odds ratios, reported with 95% confidence intervals, and a threshold of p ≤ 0.05. RESULTS: The prevalence of undernutrition was found to be 61.3% [95% CI: 58.1, 64.6]. The likelihood of developing undernutrition was elevated among those adolescents who were following the traditional school levels of dikuna (AOR = 4.3, 95% CI = 1.3, 13.6), kinne (AOR = 4.5, 95% CI = 1.4, 14.6), aquaquame (AOR = 9.9, 95% CI = 2.5, 39.88), tirguame (AOR = 6.4, 95% CI = 1.6, 25.6), and among those whose mothers had no formal education [AOR = 3.7, 95% CI: 1.2, 12.8]. In contrast, those adolescents who always washed their hands after a toilet visit had lower odds of undernutrition than their counterparts [AOR = 0.7, 95%CI: 0.5, 0.98]. CONCLUSION: More than three out of five participating male adolescents were undernourished. Thus, to improve the nutritional status of adolescents studying in traditional church schools, extensive health education for these adolescents is essential. Moreover, the establishment of well-resourced traditional religious school, equipped for the provision of an adequate, diversified diet, is important. Developing the habit of handwashing after visiting the toilet and before and after food preparation is also recommended for adolescent students. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-07-03 /pmc/articles/PMC10351981/ /pubmed/37465167 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1124173 Text en Copyright © 2023 Shiferaw, Asmamaw, Engidaw, Belay, Birhan and Negash. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Shiferaw, Yalelet Fentaw
Asmamaw, Desale Bihonegn
Engidaw, Melaku Tadege
Belay, Daniel Gashaneh
Birhan, Haileyesus
Negash, Wubshet Debebe
The prevalence of undernutrition among students attending traditional Ethiopian orthodox Tewahedo church schools in northwest Ethiopia
title The prevalence of undernutrition among students attending traditional Ethiopian orthodox Tewahedo church schools in northwest Ethiopia
title_full The prevalence of undernutrition among students attending traditional Ethiopian orthodox Tewahedo church schools in northwest Ethiopia
title_fullStr The prevalence of undernutrition among students attending traditional Ethiopian orthodox Tewahedo church schools in northwest Ethiopia
title_full_unstemmed The prevalence of undernutrition among students attending traditional Ethiopian orthodox Tewahedo church schools in northwest Ethiopia
title_short The prevalence of undernutrition among students attending traditional Ethiopian orthodox Tewahedo church schools in northwest Ethiopia
title_sort prevalence of undernutrition among students attending traditional ethiopian orthodox tewahedo church schools in northwest ethiopia
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10351981/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37465167
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1124173
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