Nutritional status and associated factors of children aged 6 to 59 months in gedeb, SNNPR, Ethiopia, following the Guji-Gedeo conflict.

Background: The Guji-Gedeo conflict displaced over 300,000 individuals in Gedeb District, worsening malnutrition in the region. This study aimed to assess the nutritional status and identify the factors associated with malnutrition among children aged 6 to 59 months who returned to Gedeb District, SNNPR, Ethiopia, after the conflict.

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from December 2019 to February 2020, involving 418 children selected through multistage sampling. Data were analyzed using Bayesian binary logistic regression, with SPSS for data management and WinBUGS for parameter estimation. Anthropometric measures were calculated using WHO Anthro software, and the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method was applied to estimate parametric distributions.

Results: The study found a malnutrition prevalence of 45.9% among children, with significant contributing factors identified. Key predictors include female gender (β = 0.306, 95% CI: 0.584-3.158, AOR = 1.358), children's age, maternal BMI (β = -2.500, 95% CI: 0.332-1.810, AOR = 0.777), urban residence (β = -0.919, 95% CI: 0.098-1.631, AOR = 0.399), birth intervals, family size (4-5) (β = -1.350, 95% CI: 0.057-1.188, AOR = 0.259), maternal education, recent diarrhea episode (β = 0.180, 95% CI: 0.218-2.354, AOR = 1.200), occupation, and improved sanitation facilities (β = -0.174, 95% CI: 0.265-2.660, AOR = 0.840).

Conclusion: This study reveals high malnutrition rates in Gedeb, with protective factors such as lower birth orders, maternal education, urban residence, improved sanitation, normal maternal BMI, and government employment. While these findings suggest areas for intervention, the cross-sectional design limits generalizability. Further longitudinal research is needed to confirm these results and guide effective interventions.