Prevalence of Neurolathyrism and its associated factors in Grass pea cultivation areas of Dawunt District, North-eastern Ethiopia; 2022: a community based multilevel analysis

INTRODUCTION: : Neurolathyrism is an upper motor neuron disorder characterized by spastic paraparesis, which is caused by the prolonged over-consumption of grass pea. It is a devastating disease with great impacts on physical, social, mental, and economical health. OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of neurolathyrism and its associated factors in grass pea cultivation areas of Dawunt wereda. METHODS: Community based cross-sectional study design was conducted from February 01- March 30, 2021 on 631 Households with a total of 3,350 individuals. Two-stage random sampling technique was used to select participants. Multilevel binary logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with neurolathyrism. Statistical significance was declared at p < 0.05; and AOR with 95% CI was used to interpret the results. RESULTS: The household and population level prevalence of neurolathyrism in Dawunt district were 9.2% (7.2–11.7%) and 2.4% (2.0-2.3.0%) respectively. Age (AOR = 7.4 ( 2.6–20.6)), male sex (AOR = 7.8 (3.9, 15.4)), and marital status (AOR = 4.0 (1.3–12.8)) were the individual level variables; family size (AOR = 12.6 (3.0-52.8)), annual grass pea production (AOR = 5.0 (2.3–11.0)), ever feeding only grass pea (AOR = 8.8(3.5–22.2)), ever feeding immature seeds of grass pea (AOR = 6.28 (2.80, 14.08)), high grass pea to other cereals mixing ratio (> 3:1) (AOR = 6.1 (1.1, 33.5)) were the household level variables found to have significant association with neurolathyrism. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of neurolathyrism was found to be high. Ever feeding only grass pea, Grass pea to other cereals mixing ratio (using ratio of 1:1 or more), and Ever feeding immature grass pea seeds were the modifiable risk factors for neurolathyrism.