Abstract:
Background:-Nutrition is an important for growth and development especially for early adolescents, since it is a period of rapid growth and maturation in human development that demands extra nutrients and energy to support growth. Focusing on early adolescents’ nutrition provides a unique opportunity to break the intergenerational cycles of underutrition. Objective:-This study aimed to assess prevalence and associated factors of undernutrition among early adolescents living in sululta district, North Shoa,Oromia, Ethiopia. Methods and materials:-A Community based Cross-sectional study design was conducted among 348 early adolescents. Kebeles are stratified into urban and rural and simple random sampling techniques were employed to select study subjects. Collected data were entered into Ipi Enfo 7. Anthropometric measurements were converted into a Z-score by WHO Anthro Plus software. Then data exported to SPSS version 25 and analyzed, bivariable as well as multivariable binary logistic regression analysis to determine factors associated with undernutrition. The strength of the association was measured using crude and adjusted odd ratios with 95% level significance, and statistical significance was declared at a p-value less than 0.05. Result:-The overall prevalence of under nutrition among early adolescents was in the study area was 40.5 %( 35.3, 46.2; 95% C.I) of which stunting and thinness was 18.2% (13.8,22.6; 95% C.I) and 27.6 %( 22.6,32.6; 95% C.I) respectively.
Family size (AOR=0.33, 95 CI: 0.20, 0.54), immunization (AOR=2.14, 95 CI: 1.32, 3.48), individual dietary diversity score of early adolescents (AOR=2.87, 95 CI: 1.59, 5.20) and early adolescent food frequency per day (AOR=1.99, 95 CI: 1.15, 3.42) were factor significantly associated with undernutrition. Conclusion: - This study revealed that prevalence of undernutrition among early adolescents was a public problem in the study area. Family size, individual dietary diversity score, immunization and early adolescent’s food frequency per day were significantly associated with undernutrition among early adolescents. So, all stakeholders should have to work to reduce prevalence of undernutrition and identified associated factors among early adolescents
