Nutrition and Dietetics, College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
School of Nutrition, Food Science and Technology, Hawassa University, Hawassa, SNNPR, Ethiopia.
PLoS One. 2018 Oct 4;13(10):e0203914. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203914. eCollection 2018.
Addressing maternal and child undernutrition is a priority for the National Nutrition Program of Ethiopia. In a cross-sectional design, we selected mother-child pairs (n = 630) from Halaba, south Ethiopia (n = 413, two communities) and Zeway, Oromiya region (n = 217, one community). These communities were previously included in a project to improve agricultural practices. We aimed to estimate the level of maternal and child undernutrition in the two study sites and compare findings to regional/national reports. We also examined associations with gender, household-structure and nutrition/health related variables. Households were selected using simple random sampling based on list of households obtained from local health posts. Mothers were interviewed via questionnaire. Anthropometric measurements were taken from mothers-child pairs. Maternal undernutrition (% BMI<18.5) ranged from moderate (14% Zeway) to high (22% Halaba). In the children, stunting and underweight were very high (54% and 42% stunting, 36% and 21% underweight, in Halaba and Zeway, respectively). Up to 95% of Halaba and 85% of Zeway mothers reported "same as usual" or "less than usual" consumption patterns during their most recent pregnancy compared to periods of non-pregnancy. Mothers reported (61% in Halaba, 18% in Zeway) abstaining from consumption of certain nutritious foods for cultural reasons. Gender and socio-economic-demographic structure of the households, including imbalance of power, control of farm produce, physiological density, household size and dietary habits during pregnancy showed significant associations with maternal and child undernutrition (p<0.05). The levels of child and maternal undernutrition, particularly in children, were unexpected and of concern, given that a national nutrition program has been in place since 2008. The study provides insights for policy makers to improve women's education, reproductive health services for better family planning, and strengthen nutrition/health programs designed to target vulnerable segments of the population in these and other rural communities and districts with similar structure and demographics in Ethiopia.
解决母婴营养不足是埃塞俄比亚国家营养计划的重点。我们采用横断面设计，从埃塞俄比亚南部的哈拉巴（Halaba）（n = 630，两个社区）和泽威（Zeway）（n = 217，一个社区）选取母婴对子（n = 413）。这些社区之前曾参与过一个改善农业实践的项目。我们旨在估计两个研究地点的母婴营养不足水平，并将研究结果与区域/国家报告进行比较。我们还研究了性别、家庭结构和营养/健康相关变量与这些问题的关联。我们根据从当地卫生所获得的家庭名单，采用简单随机抽样选择家庭。通过问卷对母亲进行访谈。从母婴对子中采集人体测量数据。母亲的营养不足（% BMI<18.5）程度从中度（泽威 14%）到高度（哈拉巴 22%）不等。在儿童中，发育迟缓（54%）和体重不足（42%）的比例非常高。在哈拉巴和泽威，分别有高达 95%和 85%的母亲报告在最近的怀孕期间与非怀孕期相比，“与往常一样”或“少于往常”的消费模式。母亲报告（哈拉巴 61%，泽威 18%）出于文化原因，避免食用某些有营养的食物。家庭的性别和社会经济人口结构，包括权力不平衡、农产品控制、生理密度、家庭规模和怀孕期间的饮食习惯，与母婴营养不足有显著关联（p<0.05）。考虑到自 2008 年以来一直有国家营养计划，儿童和母婴营养不足的程度，尤其是儿童，出乎意料，令人担忧。本研究为决策者提供了一些见解，以改善妇女教育、为更好的计划生育提供生殖健康服务，并加强营养/健康计划，以针对这些和其他农村社区以及埃塞俄比亚具有类似结构和人口统计的其他地区的弱势人群。
