Socio-demographic and environmental determinants of under-five child mortality in Ethiopia: using Ethiopian demographic and Health 2019 survey.

BACKGROUND: The under-five mortality rate is a reliable indicator of a country's general level of development and the wellbeing of its children. Life expectancy is a good indicator of a population's standard of living. OBJECTIVES: To identify Socio-demographic and Environmental determinants of under-five child mortality in Ethiopia. METHODS: A national representative cross sectional study and a quantitative study were conducted among 5753 households selected based on 2019 Mini-Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS-2019) data. The analysis was done using STATA version 14 statistical software. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used. To assess the determinants of under-five child mortality in multivariate analysis, p values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant, and odds ratios with 95% CI (confidence interval) were used. RESULTS: A total of 5,753 children were included in the study. Sex of the head of the household being female (AOR = 2:350, 95% CI: 1.310, 4.215), the U5CM for being their mother were currently married (AOR = 2:094, 95% CI: 1.076, 4.072), The odds of U5CM was less by 80% (AOR = 1.797, 95% CI: 1.159-2.782) with the number of under-five children at the household born 2-4th order as compared to those children born on the first order. For the mothers visit anti natal care four and above visit (AOR = 1:803, 95% CI: 1.032, 3.149), for the way of delivery (AOR = 0:478, 95% CI: 0.233, 0.982). CONCLUSION: Multivariate logistic analysis reflected that way of delivery, mothers had being currently marred, sex of the head of the household and number of antenatal care visit were found to be significant predictors of under-five child mortality. So, government policy, nongovernmental organizations, and all concerned bodies should be focused on the major determinants of under-five child mortality and put in a lot more effort to reduce under-five child mortality.

Nutritional Status and Effect of Maternal Employment among Children Aged 6-59 Months in Wolayta Sodo Town, Southern Ethiopia: A Cross-sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Childhood malnutrition remains common in many parts of the world; the magnitude of worldwide stunting, underweight and wasting in children under five years of age were 24.7 %, 15.1 % and 7.8 %, respectively. More than 150 million children under the age of five years in the developing world are malnourished. Ethiopia is one of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa with the highest rates of malnutrition. In Ethiopia, 44.4% and 9.7% of children under-five years old were stunted and wasted, respectively. This study was aimed to assess nutritional status and effect of maternal employment among children aged 6-59 months. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Wolayta Sodo Town, Southern Ethiopia. Socio-demographic characteristics, child feeding and healthcare seeking practice of mothers, and child's anthropometric status were assessed. Probability proportional to size sampling approach was used to select a sample of 316 mothers having children aged 6-59 months. The study was ethically approved by Institutional Review Board of Health Science College, Hawasa University. RESULT: The overall result revealed that the prevalence of stunting was 22.2%, of which 21.8% and 22.6% were in children of employed and unemployed mothers, respectively. Low-weight-for age was 10.8% for children of employed mothers and 13.4% for children of unemployed mothers. Wasting was 8.8% and 10.8% for children of employed and unemployed mothers, respectively. There was no statistically significant association between maternal employment and nutritional status of their children. However, chronic malnutrition (stunting) was influenced by being educated mother (OR: 0.37) child age group of 24-59 months (OR: 0.36) and households' fifth wealth quintile (OR: 0.28). CONCLUSION: Low prevalence of stunting was observed. Stunting is a public health concern in the study area. Furthermore, stunting is significantly influenced by mothers' education, household wealth and child age. However, maternal employment was not statistically associated with child nutritional status. Thus, nutritional intervention initiatives should focus on improving household food security, maternal education and agricultural diversification.