Abstract:
Background: - Childhood stunting is one of the most impediments to human development. The causes of stunting are numerous and ranging from immediate determinants such as poor diet and disease to the basic determinants like socio-economic and political conditions.
Objectives: - To identify determinants of stunting in children less than 5 years based on the 2011 EDHS data.
Methods: - Unmatched case control design was employed by using data of the 2011 EDHS. 4233 cases and 5655 controls identified by HAZ-score of EDHS 2011 were included in the study. Extraction and recoding of variables were performed and analysis using SPSS version 20 was done from March to June 2015.
Results: Children in the age group 24 to 35 months were at the highest risk of stunting (AOR=5.526 with 95%CI=2.172, 14.060) compared to the children less than six months. The other age groups 12-23, 36-47 and 48-59 were also significantly associated with stunting. Children with narrow (AOR=1.881, 95%CI=1.414, 2.503) and moderate preceding birth interval were (AOR=1.704, 95%CI=1.341, 2.164) times more likely to be stunted as compared to those with wide preceding birth interval. Anemia status (AOR=1.304, 95%CI=1.197, 1.420) and husband education (AOR=2.042, 95%CI=1.022, 4.080) were also associated with stunting. Households with two and more than three under five children (AOR=1.846 95%CI=1.393, 2.446) and (AOR=1.458, 95%CI=1.410, 1.864) times more at risk of being stunted than with single under five children respectively. The children from poorer households were (AOR=2.042, 95%CI=1.445, 2.885) times higher at risk of being stunted than those of the richest.
Conclusions and Recommendations: This study identified age of the child, anemia status of the child, preceding birth interval, paternal education and household wealth index as an independent determinants of stunting and efforts towards reducing stunting should consider these determinants.
