Joselyne Rugema Joselyne Mukantwari Innocent Twagirayezu Marie Jeanne Tuyisenge Reverie Rutayisire Godfrey Katende

Keywords: Predictors; Stunting; children; under five years; Rwanda.

Abstract

Background: Globally, stunting affects 159 million Under-five-years-old (U-5) children. Stunting affects the physical, mental, and cognitive development of children increasing the risk of suffering and death. This paper aimed to determine the predictors and factors associated with stunting among under-five children in Rwanda.
Methods: We retrieved data from the Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (RDHS) 2014-2015 data set. A sample of 3599 U-5 eligible children with complete and valid anthropometric data was taken. Stata software was used to analyze the data extracted using a developed checklist. Descriptive statistics and Logistic regression analysis were performed to test the association between study variables.
Results: Of 3599 U-5 children, 37.5% of children were stunted. The demographic characteristics: age (p< 0.001), sex (p<0.001), and place of residence (p< 0.001) and Household wealth index (p <0.001) were associated with stunting. Age, sex, and household wealth index were predictors of stunting.
Conclusion: Stunting is still a burden in Rwanda. Age and sex were predictors of stunting among children under 5 years of age.
Household wealth index was a predictor and significantly associated with stunting among children U-5 years in Rwanda. Investing in the interventions that target maternal and nutrition health support is imperative.
Keywords: Predictors; Stunting; children; under five years; Rwanda.

A.    AFRICAN HEALTH SCIENCES OPEN ACCESS POLICY

While African Health Sciences has been freely accessible online there have been questions on whether it is Open Access or not. We wish to clearly state that indeed African Health Sciences is Open Access. There are key issues regarding Open Access needing clarification for avoidance of doubt:

1.      Henceforth, papers in African Health Sciences will be published under the CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution License) 4.0 International. See details on https://creativecomons.org/)2.      The copyright owners or the authors grant the 3rd party (perpetually and in advance) the right to disseminate, reproduce, or use the research papers in part or in full, format/medium as long as:No substantive errors are introduced in the processAttribution of authorship and correct citation details are givenThe referencing details are not changed.

Should the papers be reproduced in part, this must be clearly stated.

3.      The papers will be freely and universally accessible online in an easily readable format such as XML in at least one widely recognized open access repository such as PUBMED CENTRAL.

B. ABRIDGED LICENCE AGREEMENT BETWEEN AUTHORS AND African Health Sciences

I submitted my manuscript to African Health Sciences and would like to affirm that:

1.0  I am authorized by my co-authors to enter into these arrangements.

2.0 I guarantee, on behalf of self and co-authors:

That the paper is original, and has not been published in any other peer-reviewed journal; nor is it under consideration by other journal (s). It does not infringe existing copyright or any other person’s rights

 

That we are/I am the sole author(s) of the paper and with authority to enter into this agreement. My granting rights to African Health Sciences is not in breach of any other obligation

 

That the paper contains nothing unlawful, or libelous. Nor anything that would constitute a breach of contract, confidence or commitment given to secrecy, if published

 

That I/we have taken care to ensure the integrity of the article.

3.0  I and all co-authors, agree that the paper, if accepted for publication, shall be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0. (see https://creativecommons.org/)