Nutritional Status of Postpartum Mothers and Associated Risk Factors in Shey-Bench District, Bench-Sheko Zone, Southwest Ethiopia: A Community Based Cross-Sectional Study

Asresash Sebeta; Abel Girma; Rediet Kidane; Eyob Tekalign; Dessalegn Tamiru

doi:10.1177/11786388221088243

Nutritional Status of Postpartum Mothers and Associated Risk Factors in Shey-Bench District, Bench-Sheko Zone, Southwest Ethiopia: A Community Based Cross-Sectional Study

Nutr Metab Insights. 2022 Apr 24:15:11786388221088243. doi: 10.1177/11786388221088243. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Asresash Sebeta¹, Abel Girma², Rediet Kidane³, Eyob Tekalign⁴, Dessalegn Tamiru³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Emergency Medicinal Technique, Mizan-Aman Health Science College, Mizan-Aman College, Ethiopia.
² School of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Science, Mizan-Tepi University, Mizan-Aman, Ethiopia.
³ Institute of Health, Faculty of Public Health, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia.
⁴ Department of Biomedical, College of Medicine and Health Science, Mizan-Tepi University, Mizan-Aman, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Background: Malnutrition affects millions of people in developing countries and contributes to poor health outcomes and nutritional status among women in the postpartum period. Lactation increases high nutritional demands and marks a significant life transition that can impact diet quality and subsequently predispose woman to high risk of overweight and undernutrition. Although, studies have been conducted on the nutritional status of lactating women, there is a gap especially on women's nutritional status during the postpartum period. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the nutritional status of postpartum women and associated factors in Shey-Bench District, Bench-Sheko Zone, Southwest Ethiopia, 2020.

Method: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Shey-Bench District from March 1 to 30/2020 among 359 postpartum mothers. Bivariate analysis was employed to select candidate variables at P-value <.25 as a cut-off point. Multiple multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to identify variables significantly associated with nutritional status of the mother at P < .05 with 95% CI.

Results: The study revealed that 10.3% of women were underweight and 16.7% were overweight. Employed mothers (AOR = 4.467, 95% CI [1.05-19.04]), employed husband (AOR = 0.087, 95% CI [0.021-0.370]), farmer husband (AOR = 0.084, 95% CI [0.024-0.293]), trader husband (AOR = 0.19, 95% CI [0.0614-0.616]), married mother (AOR = 0.222, 95% CI [0.088-0.560]), dietary diversity (AOR = 0.181, 95% CI [0.075-0.436]) were significantly associated with underweight and while being overweight was associated with dietary diversity, maternal age of between 15 to 24 and 25 to 34, exclusive breastfeeding, and frequency of breastfeeding.

Conclusion: This study found a lower prevalence of underweight compared with overweight in the study area. Occupational status, marital status, age of the mother, dietary diversity, exclusive and frequency of breastfeeding were significantly associated factors with nutritional status of postpartum mother. We recommend strengthening the provision of nutrition education on modifiable factors with collaboration of other sectors.

Keywords: Postpartum; Shey-Bench; mothers; nutritional status; southwest Ethiopia.