Abstract: Background: Globally, stunting is a public health concern, more of in developing counties, including Ethiopia. Once occurred, in the first two years of life, it is irreversible and has long-lasting harmful consequences. Exploring the determinants has pivotal importance for evidence-based interventions. Therefore, the rationale of this study was to identify determinants of stunting among children aged 6-23 months in the pastoralist community, Afar region, Ethiopia.

Method: A community-based unmatched case-control study was conducted among 381 (cases=126, controls 255) study participants from February 15/2017 to March 30/2017. Cases and controls were identified consecutively using the world health organization growth monitoring chart.

Data was collected by interviewer-administered questionnaires and anthropometric measurements. Statistical significance was declared at p-value < 0.05 in the final multivariable logistic regression model.

Result: Maternal education (AOR:0.34, 95% CI: 0.16, 0.77), maternal under-nutrition (AOR:2.91, 95% CI:1.51, 5.60), number of under-five children within the household (AOR:2.66, 95% CI: 1.38, 5.10), latrine ownership (AOR:0.28, 95% CI:0.15, 0.55), minimum Dietary Diversity score of children (AOR:0.41, 95% CI:0.22, 0.75), child age (AOR:1.76, 95% CI:1.01, 3.09), colostrum intake (AOR:3.03, 95%CI:1.62, 5.66), and exclusively breastfeed for the first six months (AOR:3.20, 95% CI:1.72,5.95) were found to be determinants of stunting.

Conclusion: This study found that determinants of childhood stunting are multifactorial. Maternal, household and child-related characteristics are associated with childhood stunting. Therefore, to improve childhood nutritional status, inter-sectoral collaboration and commitment are vital.

Keywords:  Afar, Case-control, Children aged 6-23 months, Ethiopia, Golina district, Pastoralist, Stunting.

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Abstract: Background and Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the lifestyle habits significantly associated with self-reported academic performance (AP) in children in grades 5 to 12 in Japan.

Methods: A total of 2,114 completed questionnaires were analyzed. Factors examined included habits related to sleeping, eating, defecation, physical activity, and screen time, in addition to body mass index (BMI). Social jet lag (SJL) was calculated from sleeping factors and categorized into five groups according to its value: minus 1 or less (SJL 1), more than minus 1 and 0 or less (SJL 2), more than 0 and 1 or less (SJL 3), more than 1 and 2 or less (SJL 4), and more than 2 (SJL 5). The association between self-reported AP and other factors except for SJL was assessed by means of multinomial logistic regression analysis.

Results: Factors significantly associated with good self-reported AP included female gender, lower grade, less sleepiness, lower BMI, intake of breakfast, less constipation, early wake-up time during the weekend, and short screen time during the weekend. The mean self-reported AP of SJL 3 was better than that of both SJL 5 and SJL 1.

Conclusions: Self-reported AP was associated with gender, grade, BMI, sleep, breakfast, defecation, and screen time in children in grades 5 to 12 in Japan. It must be ensured that children take enough time to perform the indispensable human behaviors of sleeping, eating, defecation, and physical activity.

Keywords: Sleep, breakfast, constipation, social jet lag, physical activity, screen time.

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Abstract: Background: Optimal infant and young child feeding practices are essential for normal growth, better health, and mental and physical development. Even though there are a lot of nutrition intervention programs in Ethiopia, still suboptimal feeding practices are prevalent. This study was devised to assess a level of minimum acceptable diet (MAD) and predictors among children aged 6-23 months in Mareka District, south Ethiopia.

Method: A community-based cross-sectional study was employed on 662 study participants from August 15 to September 15/ 2015. They were selected by a multi-stage sampling technique. Data were collected by interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaires. Statistical significance was declared at p-value <0.05 at multivariable logistic regression.

Result: The study showed that 35.5 % of the children aged 6-23 months met the recommended MAD. Maternal primary and secondary education (AOR: 1.90; 95% CI: 1.15-3.16 and AOR: 2.06, 95% CI: 1.12-3.77), Media exposure (AOR: 2.16; 95% CI: 1.46-3.29), health facility delivery (AOR:2.52; 95% CI: 1.54-4.13), child age of 9-11 and 12-23 months (AOR:2.73; 95% CI: 1.41-5.49 and AOR:2.55; 95% CI: 1.39-4.69) and GMP service utilization (AOR: 4.09; 95% CI: 2.51-6.65) were associated with MAD of children.

Conclusion: The level of MAD among children was low. Maternal educational status, media exposure, institutional delivery, child age, and GMP service utilization were associated with MAD. Increasing utilization of GMP service, health facility delivery, maternal education, and media promotion was recommended to increase the level of MAD.

Keywords:  Minimum Acceptable diet, children, 6-23 months, dietary diversity, Ethiopia.

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Abstract:  Background: Hospitalized children are at risk of malnutrition and vulnerable for many adverse outcomes.

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of hospital malnutrition in pediatric patients admitted at Chiang Mai University (CMU) hospital and evaluate correlation between malnutrition and outcomes including length of hospital stay (LOS), total hospital cost and mortality.

Methods and Study Design: A prospective cohort study was conducted at CMU hospital. Patients aged 1 month to 15 year-old who admitted to general pediatric wards were included. Demographic data, anthropometric assessments including weight, length/height and outcomes were collected. Malnutrition was classified by the WHO growth reference.

Results: A total of 217 patients with mean age 68.8 ± 53.8 month-old were analyzed. Majority of them were male (65.4%) while leading diagnosis were oncologic, infectious and congenital heart diseases. The prevalence of all malnutrition was 59.9%. According to the WHO classification, percentages of the patients who were stunted, wasted, both of stunted and wasted, and overweight were 29.9%, 9.2%, 17.1%, and 3.7%, respectively. Moreover, compared to previous study of this center in 1985, more than half of hospitalized children have still assessed as under-malnourished patients. For the hospital outcomes, wasting regardless of stunting had significantly longer LOS (8 vs 5 days, p = 0.001) and higher hospital expenditure (37,283.0 vs 23,630.0 Baht, p = 0.004) while mortality was not different.

Conclusions: The prevalence of malnutrition in hospitalized children is common and remains unchanged. Acute malnutrition significantly impact on total hospital cost and prolong LOS comparing with other groups.

Keywords: Undernutrition, Malnutrition, Hospitalized children, Hospital outcomes, Hospital cost.

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