Prevalence and factors associated with underweight status among infants in Tororo District Uganda

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Underweight in infants increases the risk of mortality (WHO, 2010 ). Globally, 16% of children below five years are underweight of these 17% are in developing countries and 21% in Sub – Sahara Africa (UNICEF-WHO, 2012). In Uganda, underweight among infants 0 to 5 months and 6 to 11 months is 10.3% and 23.2% respectively (WHO, 2011) . Data on prevalence of underweight among infants in Tororo district is limited. METHODOLOGY Study design: We conducted a cross – sectional study in six subcounties of Tororo district and estimated prevalence of underweight among infants, described associated factors, knowledge, attitude and infant feeding practices among caregivers of infants. Study sample : We applied two – stage cluster sampling then used STATA software to randomly sample required number of subcounties and villages. Probability proportional to size technique was used to distribute infants to be sampled in 37 villages. Systematic random sampling was used to sample households with infants. Data analysis : Data was analysed using STATA version 12 to obtain proportions and investigate association of variables by logistic regression. RESULTS In Tororo district, prevalence of underweight among infants was 5.35%. Breast feeding an infant at least 13 times in 24 hours was significantly associated with underweight in infants (AOR: 0.01, CI: 0.00 – 0.93. The proportion of caregivers that have adequate knowledge in infant feeding was 49.5% . The proportion of caregivers that have positive attitude towards infant feeding was 34.4%. The proportion of caregivers that practiced appropriate infant feeding was 7.4%

CONCLUSION Prevalence of underweight among infants in Tororo is 5.4%. Breast feeding at least 13 times in 24 hours was significantly associated with underweight among infants. Proportion of caregivers of infants with adequate knowledge on infant feeding was 49.5%, proportion of caregivers with positive attitude towards infant feeding was 34.4% and proportion of caregivers that practiced appropriate infant feeding was 7.4%.