Prevalence of Stunting and Associated Factors among School Age Children in Primary Schools of Haik Town, South Wollo Zone, North- Eastern Ethiopia, 2017

Background: Under-nutrition is the major public health problem in the developing countries including Ethiopia. This study aimed to investigate the magnitude of stunting and associated factors among school age children.Methods: A school based cross-sectional study was conducted on 414 school age children in Haiyk town Primary schools, North eastern Ethiopia in May 2017. In this study, Stunting was defined as a child whose height for age Z-scores is below -2SD. Descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis to identify associated factors and multivariable logistic regression analysis were employed to control the effect of potential confounders. Variables with a pvalue< 0.05 in the multivariable model were identified as predictors of stunting.Results: The prevalence of stunting among school age children was 44 (11.3%) with Z-scores below-2SD and 83.7% of students were categorized under 16.5-18.5 body mass index. Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that increased child level of education (AOR 4.028; 95% CI 1.72, 9.42), did not have additional food during study time (AOR 2.12; 95% CI 1.10, 4.12) and use of mixed food (AOR 0.20; 95% CI 0.06, 0.70) have been found significant associated with stunting.Conclusion: The study revealed that magnitude of stunting among school age children was suboptimal. Therefore, interventions could focus on educating parents on the importance of timely feeding, balanced diet; economize use of the available resources. Further analytic studies should be conducted to investigate the causes of stunting among school children in the study area.