Effect of Employment Status of Mother on the Nutritional Status of Children aged 6-23 months: A Comparative Cross Sectional Study in Burayu Town, Oromia Region, Ethiopia 2019
Creators: name: Olika, Mulugeta
Publisher: name: National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia
Year: 2019

description: Background: Mothers multiple roles as care-givers of her child &amp; providers of family income may conflict with one another in child nutrition. Working mothers may not have adequate time to care for their offspring's which will negatively affect child nutritional status. On the other hand, working mothers generate income which could be utilized for better child nutrition. So whether the well-being of children is affected more by the time constraints of women who perform dual role of mother and earner, or by the increased income generated by the mother's working is a gap &amp; require finding Objective:-To compare the nutritional status (stunting and wasting) of children aged 6-23 months among employed and unemployed mothers in Burayu Town. Methodology: A community based comparative cross-sectional study design was used from January to June 2019 in Burayu town on704 employed and unemployed mother-child pair. Multistage cluster sampling method was used for the selection of clusters and study participants. Data were entered into EPi info and analysis was performed using SPSS version 24.0, and WHO Anthro program was used for conversion of nutritional data of children into Z-scores. The differences in nutritional status of children aged 6-23 months between employed and unemployed mothers were analyised using Bivariate and Multivariate logistic regression at p-value 0.05. Results: The multivariate analysis shows that children of employed mothers were stunted ((AOR:4.38, 95% CI(2.55-7.51) and wasted (AOR:2.38, 95%CI(1.16-4.91)). Children who received dietary diversity less than 4 food groups and meal frequency less than 4 times daily were stunted ((AOR:1.86, 95%CI(1.26-2.76) and (AOR:1.77,95%CI(1.06-2.94)) respectively. Children whose households had allocating lower monthly food expenditure, had using flush to septic tank type toilet facility, and boiling method of water treatment were stunted ((AOR:1.78, 95% CI(1.16-2.74), (AOR: 0.45, 95% CI ((0.250.81)and (AOR: 0.48, 95% CI(0.26-0.86)) respectively. Children of male sex and with parity of birth with one years, who didn't bottle fed and whose households using strained through cloth method of treatment of water were wasted ((AOR:2.42, 95% CI(1.45-4.02), (AOR: 3.74, 95% CI ((1.23-11.39), (AOR: 0.48, 95% CI(0.28-0.83) and (AOR: 0.22, 95% CI(0.07-0.72)) respectively. Conclusion: Children from employed mother had significantly higher level of length for age Z-Score and weight for Length Z-Score than unemployed mothers. Mothers constraint's of time and inconvenient working area for feeding practice of children such as adequate dietary diversity (food groups) and meal frequency were the contributory factors for the higher nutritional status. Recommendation: Giving emphasis for working mothers to receive more support in their work place to practice adequate dietary diversity (food groups) and meal frequency is recommended.