Assessment of gender differential in magnitude

Malnutrition remains one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality among children throughout the world. The nutritional status of infants and children under five years of age is of particular concern since the early years of life are crucial for optimal growth and development malnutrition has been responsible, directly or indirectly, for 60% of the 10.9 million deaths annually among children under five. Malnutrition is an underlying factor in over half of under-five child death in Ethiopia, and children with severe acute malnutrition face 30-50 percent chance of dying unless treated. The study design was community based comparative cross-sectional quantitative study and supplemented qualitative (FGD) methods. A total of 746 children were selected using cluster sampling technique. Quantitative data were collected using structured questionnaire and including anthropometric measurements. The NCHS reference population standard of WHO was utilized to convert height and weight measurements into Z-scores of the H/A, W/H and W/A indices considering age and sex of the children.