Effect of Educational Status on Underweight among Lactating Women in Ethiopia

Objective: The objective of this systemic review and meta-analysis was to examine the relationship between educational status and underweight among lactating women in Ethiopia. The studies conducted before indicate in consistence association between educational status and underweight among lactating women in Ethiopia. We include 7 studies in different regions of Ethiopia.  Materials and Methods: The databases, including PubMed, Google scholar were systematically searched. From 2015 to 2020 data were extracted and tabulated by two reviewers using a table containing the following variables: author, title, date of publication, city(s)/ Region / study design, sample size, percentage women with informal education and percentage women with formal education and underweight. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale for cross-sectional studies quality assessment tool was adapted and used to assess the quality of each study. The combined adjusted Odds ratios (OR)) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using random effect model.  Results: In the current meta-analysis seven observational studies involving 3113 lactating women’s were used to estimate the pooled effect size of underweight. The result of 7 included studies indicated that the pooled odd ratio of underweight among women with informal education compared with women with formal education in Ethiopia was 2.47 (95% CI: 1.69, 3.83). Publication bias for estimating the odd ratio of underweight for women with informal education compared to women with formal education (p = 0.881) and (p = 0.649) respectively. Heterogeneity was statistically significant (I2=76% Q=25.06; P<0•001). From 54.35% (1692) women who have informal education 16.35% (509) women have underweight. The overall proportion of underweight was 16.35% and 6.58% for those having informal education and formal education respectively.  Conclusions: There was evidence that lactating mothers with informal education are more likely to experience underweight. Based on our findings, we strongly recommended that the health education activities about nutrition should be targeted among lactating women with informal education through health extension workers.