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Household sanitation practice associated with nutritional status of pre-school children aged 24-59 months in Hawassa Zuria Woreda, South Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study.

Sintayehu Assefa, Dejene Hailu, Alemneh Kabeta, Getenesh Berhanu

Introduction: Childhood is period by when human being expected to shape prenatal nutritional deficiencies and foster good health. Children from developing countries including Ethiopia suffer both from sanitary gaps and under nutrition. Though literatures depict sanitary problem and nutritional deficits as problems to be focused on separately evidences examining association of the two issues are limited in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the relationship between household sanitation practice and anthropometric status of pre-school children aged 24-59 months old in Hawassa Zuria Woreda, Southern Ethiopia. Method: A community based cross-sectional study design was employed. By using simple random sampling technique 597 child-mothers/caregiver pairs were selected and interviewed with semi-structured questionnaire. Anthropometric statuses were generated using WHOAnthro. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square test. Results: The prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting were 245 (41%), 134 (22.4%) and 79 (13.2%), respectively. Household sanitation practices and stunting (X2=4.21 and P-value=0.04), underweight (X2=4.38 and P-value=0.04) and wasting (X2=12.95 and P-value<0.001) were found statistically significantly associated. Conclusion: Prevalence of underweight was lower than the national figure. Proportion of wasted and stunted pre-school children was higher than both the national and regional reports. Household sanitation practice and pre-school children’s nutritional status (Stunting, Wasting and Underweight) were found associated. Per the finding, stakeholders and mothers/caregivers better design strategies to improve household sanitation practice. Further studies can be done focusing cause effect relationship and examining effect of strategies to improve household sanitation practices.