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Nutritional Status and Associated Factors among Adolescent Girls in Ethiopia: Analysis of the 2016 EDHS Data

Samrawit Teka Badu*, Semira Abdelmenan Awel, Yared Lasebew Asres, Adugnaw Atnafu Atalay

Background: Despite the significant public health impact under nutrition has on adolescent girls themselves and their offspring, there are limited studies conducted at a national level in Ethiopia. Most of the published studies on adolescent girls’ nutritional status in Ethiopia are small scale school-based surveys that marginalized non-school attending and non-pregnant adolescent girls. Understanding and identifying the distribution of adolescent malnutrition across the regions of the country and its determinants are vital for planning and implementing interventions that can help address the problem. Methods: Secondary analysis of data was conducted on the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) and out of the 15,683 woman participants of the 2016EDHS a subsample of 3498 adolescent girls aged 15-19 were selected from which 3126 respondents with complete responses to all the variables of interest were retained the dependent variable was adolescent nutrition measured in terms of stunting and underweight. Height for age z score (HAZ) <-2 was used to identify stunting while BMI <18.5kg/m2 was used to identify underweight. Bi variable and multivariable regression was carried out. Results: In this study the prevalence of stunting and thinness was 14.2 and 28.8% respectively. Type of place of residence and wealth index were significantly associated with stunting, Accordingly the odds of stunting among respondents living in rural areas was (AOR=1.6;95% CI;1.2,2.0)higher compared to adolescents girls living in urban settings .Adolescent girls from poor wealth group (AOR=1.5;95% CI;1.2,1.8)) Had a higher odds of being stunted compared to adolescent girls from rich group. Type of place of residence was significantly associated with underweight, accordingly the odds being thin among respondents living in rural areas was (AOR=1.7; 95% CI;1.2, 2.0) higher compared to adolescents girls living in urban settings. Conclusion: the current study revealed that stunting and underweight are important public health problems among adolescent girls in Ethiopia