Prevalence Of Stunting And Its Associated Risk Factors Among Children Aged 6-59 Months At Selected Hospitals In Mogadishu Somalia

Objective stunting is one of the major public health problems worldwide.It is mainly caused by malnutrition in children under 5 years of age.Extensive research on this issue will help public health planners reshape and redesign new interventions to develop prevention strategies for stunting to reduce harm to child health.This study aims to determine the prevalence and risk factors of stunting in children aged 6 – 59 months at selected hospitals in Mogadishu,Somalia.Methods This study used a crosssectional study with a sample size of 366 samples from banadir and SOS hospitals.Human indicators and the Z-score index were measured using the ENA calculated intelligent version(2020),and the data input for the questionnaire,analysis,and management was completed using the SPSS version.Find prevalence stunting and associated risk factors using univariate analysis,bivariate and multivariate by chisquare test,by means and logistic regression.Results In this study,about a third(35.2%)of the children were below two standard deviations(stunted),14% moderate and 21% severe stunted.Children with a higher risk of developing stunting were aged6 – 23 months and 24 – 48 months.The incidence of stunting was 1.865 times higher when compared to children who had never breastfed more than 8 times a day.Conclusion The prevalence of stunting was very high(35.2%),and most(60%)of the stunted children were severely stunted.Child age and frequency of breastfeeding are risk factors associated with stunting.Other factors such as environmental factors and healthcare factors were not significant in this study.