Modeling non-Gaussian data analysis on determinants of underweight among under five children in rural Ethiopia: Ethiopian demographic and health survey 2016 evidences

BACKGROUND: Childhood under-nutrition is a major global health problem. Although the rate of under-nutrition in Ethiopia has declined in the last decade, but it still remains being the major causes of morbidity and mortality of children under-five years. The problem is even worse in rural areas. The prevalence of underweight among rural children was 25% compared with 13% among urban children. To alleviate this problem, it is necessary to determine the magnitude and determinants of underweight. The study models non-Gaussian data analysis to identify risk factors associated with underweight among under-five children in rural Ethiopia. METHODOLOGY: The data source for this study was secondary data, which was retrieved from EDHS 2016 database. It was analyzed using two model families; one with marginal models (GEE and ALR) in which responses are modeled and marginalized overall other responses, and the other is random effects model (GLMM) which is useful when the interest of the analyst lies in the individual’s response profiles as well as to evaluate within and between regional variations of underweight. RESULT: From fitting non-Gaussian data analysis to identify risk factors associated with underweight among under five children in rural Ethiopia, the independent variable which have significant effect on underweight were:—Age of child, birth interval, mothers education, fathers education, wealth index, diarrhea in last two weeks, fever in last two weeks are significant and also father’s work status shows that difference in significance among the category. CONCLUSION: Child age, preceding birth interval, mother’s education, household’s wealth index, fever, diarrhea, father’s education and father’s work status were associated with child underweight. Furthermore, there is both within and between regional heterogeneity of underweight among children in rural Ethiopia. Therefore, rigorous community-based interventions (such as uplifting mother’s education by providing formal education and preventing infectious diseases that cause diarrhea and fever) should be developed and executed throughout the country to improve this grave situation of underweight prevalence in rural areas of Ethiopia.