Determinants of Wasting Among Under-Five Children in Ethiopia: (A Multilevel Logistic Regression Model Approach)

Child malnutrition in Ethiopia is one of the most serious public health problems and the highest in the world. Wasting refers to low weight-for-height and measures the body’s mass in relation to body length. The objective of this study was to identify determinants of wasting among under-five children in Ethiopia. The study used data collected in the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey in 2010/2011. A total of 9611 under-five age children were included in the present study. To analyze the data descriptive statistics and multilevel binary logistic regression techniques were employed. The descriptive statistics results indicate that about 11.7 % of under-five children in Ethiopia were wasted. The results of study indicated that the risk of wasting was highest among male children, small size at birth, children whose parents resided in rural areas, children’s of illiterate mothers, children whose mother’s body mass index was low, children from poor families and children who had diarrhea and fever two weeks before the date of the survey. The multilevel model also showed the existence of significant variations in the prevalence of wasting among the regions in Ethiopia.