Gender differences in nutritional status and determinants among infants (6–11 m): a cross-sectional study in two regions in Ethiopia

Table 1 Selected characteristics of young children in Oromiya and SNNP^a regions of Ethiopia, 2015

Characteristics	Total population	Boys		Girls	p-value^††
Characteristics	n = 2036	n = 1049		n = 987	p-value^††
Region, Oromiya %	47.6	53.7		46.3	0.069
Child characteristics
Child’s age in months, mean ± SD	8.2 ± 1.7	8.2 ± 1.7	8.2 ± 1.7		0.459
6–8 n (%)	113 (54.7)	562 (53.6)	551 (55.8)		0.327
9–1.9 n (%)	923 (45.3)	487 (46.4)	436 (44.2)
Male child, n (%)	1049 (51.5)
Height, mean ± SD, cm	68.4 ± 3.8	68.9 ± 3.8	67.9 ± 3.8		< 0.001
Weight, mean ± SD, kg	7.72 ± 1.1	7.9 ± 1.1	7.5 ± 1.0		< 0.001
Length-for-age z score (LAZ), mean ± SD	-0.65 ± 1.4	-0.86 ± 1.4	-0.43 ± 1.3		< 0.001
Stunted (< -2SD) %	14.8	18.7	10.7		< 0.001
Severely stunted (< -3SD) %	3.9	6.0	1.7		< 0.001
Weight-for-length z score (WLZ), mean ± SD	-0.37 ± 1.1	-0.43 ± 1.1	-0.30 ± 1.1		0.011
Wasted (< -2SD) %	6.7	7.9	5.4		0.026
Diarrhea (prior 1 wk) %	28.3	28.2	28.4		0.961
Common cold or flu (prior 1 wk) %	25.5	26.0	25.0		0.612
Mother’s characteristics
Mother’s age in years, mean (SD)	25.4 ± 5.7	25.5 ± 5.9		25.4 ± 5.4	0.903
Mother’s educational status %
Illiterate/none–formal education	48.4	48.8		48.0	0.374
Grades 1–8	43.8	42.8		44.8
Grade 9 and above	7.8	8.4		7.2
Marital status %
Married	96.4	96.3		96.6	0.812
Single/separated/divorced/widowed	3.6	3.7		3.4
Mother’s occupation %
Housewife/live with family	80.9	80.4		81.6	0.499
Working mother^b	19.1	19.6		18.4
Household characteristics^c
WASH indicators
Adequate sanitation %
Adequate ^d	93.9	94.3		93.5	0.517
Drinking water ^f
Basic drinking achieved	92.7	93.2		92.1	0.349
Farmland ownership %	91.2	90.1		92.3	0.149

^†† Chi-square tests were used for categorical variables and Student t-tests (sig 2-tailed) were used for continuous variables to compare the characteristics between boys and girls
^a Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples
^b Working mother includes farmer, trader, merchant, civil servant, and teacher
^c n = 2023 (undefined n = 13)
^d Adequate sanitation includes a pit latrine with a superstructure, and a platform or squatting slab constructed of durable material; inadequate sanitation includes open pit, shared facilities of any type, no facilities, bush, or field [18]
^f Basic drinking water includes piped water with the subcategories public tap and private tap, protected spring, protected well, water from a borehole, water from a tanker truck, and rainwater; inadequate basic drinking water: surface water, river, unprotected spring [18]

ISSN: 1471-2458