Abstract

ASSESSMENT OF NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF CHILDREN BORN FROM HIV POSITIVE MOTHERS IN HARARI REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA, 2017

Arif Hussen*

ABSTRACT

Background: Growth failure in children is a health problem in developing countries. Growth failure is frequently found in children among HIV positive mothers, especially in areas where a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS coexists with high rates of food insecurity. However, despite the seriousness of the problem few studies conducted to explain nutritional status of children among HIV positive mothers but still relatively inadequate. Objective: This study aims to investigate nutritional status of children and associated factors among HIV positive mothers in Harari regional state, Ethiopia. Methodology: A community based cross sectional method was employed, The study was conducted in Harari Region which is one of Ethiopian regional states, which is 515Km far from capital city Addis Ababa. Number of participants were one hundred ninety three (193) children, the sampling technique was simple random sampling method. Data was collected using a structured checklist. Data was entered; cleaned and analyzed using SPSS version 20.Logistic regression was used to assess the association between the dependent and independent variables to control confounding factors. Adjusted odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) and P values will be calculated. P< 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result: Among total of the studied children (53.9%) of them were mal-nourished. About 44% were underweight of which 30.1% were severely underweight, 40% were wasted of which 19.7%were severely wasted and8.3% were stunted of which 2.1% were severely stunted. Conclusion: Malnutrition among children under five years of age among HIV positive mothers affects greater than half of the study populationtherefore it isa public health concern. The identified causative factors were: being female by sex, low food access and HIV positive status of child.

Keywords: HIV+ mothers, under- fives, Mal-nutrition.