Assessment of the Nutritional Status and Associated Factors of Orphans and Vulnerable Preschool Children on Care and Support from Nongovernmental Organizations in Hawassa Town

Abstract

Background: United Nation Children‟s Fund estimates that as of 2010 there were 153 million orphaned children and adolescents living in the world. Thirty six percent of the world‟s orphans lives in Sub Saharan region. As of 2012, Ethiopia is estimated to have 1,988,731 Orphans of whom 530,630 are orphans due to HIV /AIDS and is one of the largest populations of Orphan and Vulnerable Children in Africa. However there is a little information about the effect of orphan hood and child vulnerabilities on child nutritional status in the study setting. Objective: To assess the nutritional status and associated factors among orphans and vulnerable preschool children on care and support from a nongovernmental organization. Methods: Community based Cross-sectional study was conducted on 364 orphan and vulnerable preschool children who were on care and support from Non Governmental Organization in Hawassa town, Southern Ethiopia. The data collection instruments were a structured pretested questionnaire, 24 dietary recall and anthropometric measurements. Data were entered using EPi-info software and exported to SPSS for analysis. The prevalence of malnutrition among Orphans and Vulnerable preschool Children was assessed by calculating the percentages using ENA for SMART 2007 software and analysis was made using WHO Standard cut off point below- 2 S.D using z-scores. Logistic Binary and multivariate analysis were carried out to see the effect of each independent variable on nutritional status explained as stunting ,wasting and underweight. Logistic regression was used to control any confounders at p value 0.05 with 95% CI. Results: This study revealed that, 35.1%, 8.9 % and 7.5 % of orphans and vulnerable children were stunted, underweight and wasted, respectively. The main associated factors of stunting were found to be children who have parents (AOR 3.717; 95% CI 1.405, 9.804), single care takers (AOR.259; 95% CI .751, .089) and Educational status secondary and above (AOR 2.777; 95% CI 1.272, 6.063), first complementary food were milk (AOR 2.463; 95% CI 1.328, 4.568).Cough prior to 2 weeks of this survey (AOR 2.272; 95% CI 1.997, 5.181), HH food security (AOR 2.667; 95% CI 1.072,6.667)and food and nutritional support from NGO‟s. (AOR.6.251; 95% CI. 1.427, 9.778)) Were variable associated with wasting. Underweight was associated with family size < 5 (AOR 2.778; 95% CI 27 1.148, 6.721) and duration of breast feeding (AOR 3.257; 95% CI 1.344, 7.891). Conclusion and recommendation: from the findings of this study, can be concludes that malnutrition is still an important problem among Orphans and vulnerable preschool Children on care and support from NGO‟s and more attention needed to be given by stakeholders.