Background. Undernutrition in early childhood has irreversible and long-lasting implications. Hence, this study was aimed at assessing risk factors of child undernutrition.Methods. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 642 households with mothers to children pairs aged 6–59 months selected by a multistage systematic random sampling method. Child anthropometric measurements on weight were recorded using standardized and calibrated weighing scales. Weight-for-age was compared to the 2007 WHO growth reference by WHO Anthro software. Data were entered using Epi-Info and analyzed using SPSS. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate the association between underweight children and their predictors; both crude and adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence interval were reported.Results. One-fourth (25%) of the children were underweight. Child age (AOR: 2.36), gender (AOR: 1.82), illness (AOR: 0.09), maternal decision making power (AOR: 0.07), maternal education (AOR: 0.19), employment/occupation (AOR: 5.29), and household income (AOR: 4.16) were found to be independent and significant predictors of underweight children.Conclusion. Significant proportion of the children were underweight. Maternal decision-making power persists as a strong predictor of children’s weight. Therefore, intervention programs focusing on improving mothers’ decision-making power on child nutrition would contribute to the efforts towards alleviating the problem.

Background. Millennium Development Goal 4 calls for reducing under-five mortality rate by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015. The aim of this review was to assess trend of childhood mortality and its determinants from 1990 to 2015 in Ethiopia. Methods. A systematic literature search was conducted in the databases of PubMed and Ovid Medline, Cochrane Library, national medical journals, government websites, and Google Scholar. Original observational study designs and reports conducted entirely or in part in Ethiopia that included a primary outcome variable of childhood mortality and published between 1990 and 2015 were included. Ascertained relevant articles were appraised and the findings were integrated into a systematic review. Results. Childhood mortality has declined in Ethiopia with more pronounced reduction over the last 10 years. Under-five mortality is 72% lower now than it was 25 years ago, with the pace of decline in infant mortality (83%) somewhat faster than child mortality (76%). The corresponding decline in neonatal and postneonatal mortality over the same period was 64% and 68%, respectively. Parental sociodemographic, socioeconomic, and behavioral variables and nutritional, environmental, and sanitary factors have been identified to affect child survival. Conclusion. Ethiopia has successfully achieved the Millennium Development Goal 4 to reduce under-five mortality.

Background: Early years of life are period of maximal growth and development of human brain. Development of young child is influenced by biological endowment and health of child, nutritional status of child, relationships with primary caregivers, family, and support systems in the community. This study was aimed to assess childhood development in relation to their nutritional status. Method: Community-based cross-sectional study was employed. Multi–stage systematic random sampling technique was used to select 626 children aged 12-59 months with mother/caregivers’ pairs in Wolaita district in 2015. Child development assessment was done using third edition of age and stage questionnaire. Height and weight were measured by trained data collectors then the WHO Anthro version 3.2.2 software was used to convert nutritional data indices. Data were entered into Epi-info version 3.3.5 and was exported and analyzed using STATA version 14. Correlation and multiple logistic regression were used. Result: High risk of developmental problem in children were 19.0% with 95% CI (16.06%, 22.3%), and it is expressed as communication 5.8%, gross motor 6.1%, fine motor 4.0%, personal social 8.8%, and problem solving 4.1%. One-third (34.1%) of the study participants were stunted while 6.9% and 11.9% of them were wasted and underweight respectively. Weight-for-age (WAZ) and height-for-age positively correlated with all five domains of development, i.e., with communication, gross motor, fine motor, personal social, and problem solving (r = 0.1 − 0.23; p < 0.0001, and r = 0.131 − 0.249; p < 0.0001) respectively. Conclusion and recommendation: Overall child development was directly related with nutritional status. So, available resources should be offered to decrease children undernutrition. Further assessment on childhood development of children is necessary

Background: Globally, dental caries appears a major public health problem and a widespread non -communicable disease. It is more prevalent among children school-age children (6–12 years), However, there are few studies that correlate dental caries with nutritional status. Thus, this study aims to determine the relation of dental caries with nutritional status among school-age children at resource limited setting of southern Ethiopia. Methodology: A community-based cross sectional study was employed on randomly selected 761 school-age children of Areka town. Data were collected by face-to-face interviewer-administered questionnaire and clinical assessment of dental caries. After that, the collected data were entered into Epi data 3.2.1 and exported to SPSS 20 for further analysis. On the other hand, bivariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were used to identify the association of dependent and independent variables. p Value < 0.05 was considered to declare a result as statistically significant. Results: Prevalence of dental caries among school-age children was 15.6% (95% CI 13.0–18.5). In technical senses, 4.3% (95% CI 2.9–5.8%) of children were underweight and 14.2% (95% CI 11.7–16.6%) were overweight. However, it has been unfolded that the relationship between dental caries and nutritional status was not statistically significant with a p value (p = 0.32). Factors associated with dental caries were educational status of a mother AOR 3.14, (95% CI 1.03–9.56), not cleaning teeth AOR 7.70, (95% CI 4.00–14.85), sugared coffee drinking AOR 3.22, (95% CI 1.68–6.18.0), sweet food consumption AOR 4.19, (95% CI 1.76–9.96) and non-consuming milk AOR 5.66 ( 95% CI 1.49–21.49). Conclusion and recommendation: Dental caries at south Ethiopia were low compared to WHO’s reports on oral health on school-age children. Tooth cleaning habit, parental education, sweet food consumption and milk consumption are associated factors. Therefore, behavioral intervention on dental hygiene and dietary practices are mandatory for school-age children.

Background. The Ethiopian government is striving to improve the health status of its population through the expansion and strengthening of primary health care services in both rural and urban settings of the country. The study aimed to measure modern health service utilization and associated factors in Wolaita Sodo town, Ethiopia. Method. A cross-sectional study design was implemented from May to June 2019 in Wolaita Sodo town, Ethiopia. All 786 study participants were selected by multistage systematic random sampling. Data were collected by face-to-face interviews using a pretested structured questionnaire. Data were collected by an open data kit. Stata window version 15.0 was also employed for statistical analysis. Multiple logistic regression was conducted, and a 95 confidence interval was considered for interpretation. Result. Health service utilization was 77.2 with (95 CI of 74.1, 80.0). In terms of health facilities in which they visit, first 50.6 were at the public health center and 25.5 of them were at Teaching and Referral Hospital. Respondents with marital status married and widowed have higher odds of utilizing health services compared to single marital status (AOR: 2.96; 95 CI: 1.75.2 and 9.0; 95 CI: 1.6948.0), respectively. Respondents with middle and highest wealth status have higher odds of health service utilization than poor wealth status with AOR (1.75 95 CI 1.032.97 and 1.58 95 CI; 1.01, 2.77). Similarly, respondents who had chronic disease and perceived poor health status have higher odds of health service utilization. Conclusion. Modern health services utilization was found to be unsatisfactory. Being married, wealth status being middle and high, having chronic health conditions, and having poor perceived health status were found to have a statistically significant association with health service utilization.

Timely introduced complementary foods, which are appropriate for age, safe and nutrient dense are vital for child growth and development. The aim of the study was to identify associated factors that hampered timely introduction of complementary feeding practices among children 6-23 months. A community-based cross-sectional study was carried out. The data were collected from March 02-20, 2015 in seven-selected Kebeles of Wolaita Sodo town. Systematic sampling technique was employed to select 623 mothers/caregivers with children. The analysis was done using SPSS version 21. Principal component analysis was used to measure household economic status. Binary logistic regression was used to identify predictors of timely initiation of complementary feeding practice. The proportion of timely (at six months) introduction of complementary feeding was 71.2% [95% CI: 66.4%-75.3%], and 25.5% [95% CI: 21.7%- 30%] of children were experienced delayed introduction of complementary feeding. Variables like maternal education [AOR=0.33; 95% CI (0.14-0.78)], household economic status [AOR=0.40;95% CI(0.17-0.85)], history of child medical illness [AOR= 0.63; 95% CI (0.40-0.98)], early initiation of breastfeeding [AOR=2.59; 95% CI (1.02-7.35)] and having source of information about child feeding practices [AOR=0.41; 95% CI (0.24- 0.73)] were identified as independent predictors of introduction of complementary foods at the age of six months. The study came up with nearly three-fourth of children were initiated complementary food just at six months of age. It is not much higher than the target of the current national health sector development program. Maternal illiteracy, low socioeconomic status, presence of medical illness and lack of source of information about complementary feeding practices were associated with timely initiation of complementary feeding. Unreserved support and encouragement should be made to raise level of timely introduction of complementary foods and to diminish delayed introduction of complementary food.