Anthropometric failures and its associated factors among preschool-aged children in a rural community in southwest Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: In 2019, 144 million under-five-year-old children were stunted, and 47 million were wasted globally. In Ethiopia, approximately 350,000 children are estimated to die each year. Preschool aged children need focused attention because this age group not only has special needs, but also forms the platform for growth and development of all children. Under nutrition among preschool children is the result of a complex interplay of diverse elements, such as birth weight, household access to food, availability and use of drinking water. This study aimed at determining the anthropometric failures and associated factors using composite indictors. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study design was used among randomly selected 588 caregivers with pre-school aged children. Under-nutrition of pre-school aged children was computed by using the composite index of anthropometric failure. A multi-stage sampling technique followed by a systematic random sampling technique was used to select study participants. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data. WHO Anthro software was used to calculate height for age, weight for age and weight for height. The overall prevalence of anthropometric failure (CIAF). Both bivariable and multivariable binary logistic regressions were used to identify factors associated with under-nutrition. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of under-nutrition among pre-school children was 50.8%, which was significantly associated with being a female (AOR = 1.51, CI: 1.076, 2.12), being from a large family (AOR = 1.78, CI: 1.19, 2.663), having acute respiratory infection (AOR = 1.767, CI: 1.216, 2.566), lack of improved source of drinking water (AOR = 1.484 CI: 1.056, 2.085) and poor dietary diversity score (AOR = 1.5, CI: 1.066, 2.112). CONCLUSIONS: The study area has a high prevalence of CIAF in pre-school aged children. The CIAF was found to be significantly associated with the sex of the child, family size, ARI within the last two weeks, and dietary diversity score. To promote the use of family planning and the prevention of infectious diseases, health education is required. The government should adapt CIAF as a metric for assessing children’s nutritional status.