Prevalence And Associated Factors of Thinness Among Adolescent Girls Attending High School In Soro District, Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia

Background: Despite the government of Ethiopia is striving to reduce the prevalence of the undernutrition, thinness among adolescents is one of the challenging nutritional issues in lifecycle approach in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study was aimed on determining the prevalence of thinness and its associated factors among adolescent girls attending high schools in Soro District, Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia. Methods: Institution based comparative cross sectional study design was employed. The study was conducted from March 15 to April 15, 2019 in high schools of rural and urban settings of Sorro District, Hadiya Zone. Both binary and multivariable logistic regression analysis were done to identify the factors associated with thinness among adolescent girls. Result: A total of 414 adolescent girls were participated in this study making the response rate of 100%. The mean age were (17.01± 1.55) and 16.90 ± 1.48, P = 0.437) among adolescent girls in rural and urban high schools respectively. The overall prevalence of the thinness among female adolescents attending high schools in Soro district, Hadiya Zone was 6.8%. There was no statistically significant difference in thinness among adolescent girls in rural and urban high schools. Household wealth tertile AOR: 4.19; 95% C.I: 1.13-15.47, P <0.05, source of drinking water AOR: 2.31; 95% C.I: 1.01- 5.30, P <0.05, dietary diversity AOR: 3.99; C.I: 1.15-13.82, P <0.05 and skipping breakfast AOR: 2.97; C.I: 1.28-6.92, P <0.05 were found to be independent factors associated with thinness. Conclusion: Being low in household wealth tertile, unprotected source of drinking water, inadequate dietary diversity and skipping breakfast were those factors identified to be independently associated with thinness among female adolescents. Attention should be given from government and nongovernmental organizations by empowering household economic capacity, extending access for pure drinking water and increasing nutrition sensitive agriculture focusing on maintaining food varieties.