Citation: Birhanu A, Mekonen S, Atenafu A and Abebaw D. Stunting and Associated Factors among Children Aged 6-59 Months in Lasta Woreda, North East Ethiopia, 2015: A Community Based Cross Sectional Study Design. J Fam Med. 2017; 4(3): 1112. J Fam Med - Volume 4 Issue 3 - 2017 ISSN : 2380-0658 | www.austinpublishinggroup.com Birhanu et al. © All rights are reserved Journal of Family Medicine Open Access Abstract Background: Stunting refers to low height-for-age as a result of chronic malnutrition. Globally, 165 million under fve year’s children were stunted annually, which was associated with 10.6 million deaths. Although stunting is increasingly being recognized as a widespread problem, precise data on the magnitude and associated factors of stunting was not available at the study area which was highly infuenced by the local geo-cultural factor, custom and context. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess prevalence and factors associated stunting among children aged 6-59 months in Lasta Woreda, North East Ethiopia. Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted from March-April, 2015. A multistage sampling strategy with simple random sampling approach was used with total sample size units of 825. Data were collected Using validated questionnaire through interviewing parents or caregivers and Anthropometric measurement. EPI INFO version 7 software was used for data entry. For Analysis SPSS version 20 statistical software was used. Principal component Analysis was applied to compute wealth index. Z-Score of the children were calculated using SMART software (ENA2011). To identify the association and signifcant predictors, binary logistic regression was employed. Results: A total of 759 study participants were included in the study giving response rate of 92%. The overall prevalence stunting was 49.7% (95% CI: 46.1-53.3). Among this 57.7%; (95% CI: 50.9-60.4) were male and 42.3% (95% CI: 36.8-47.6) were female. The proportion of moderate and sever stunting among study population was 31.7% and 18.0% respectively. Being male AOR= 1.90; (95% CI; 1.29-2.82), increasing age (AOR = 8.38; (95% CI: 3.78-15.6)), large family size (AOR=1.78; (95% CI; 1.19-2.65)), poor wealth status (AOR = 2.64; (95% CI; 1.58-4.41)), illiterate mother (AOR = 4.02; (95% CI: 2.3-7.04)), leftover food (AOR=1.94; (95% CI: 1.30-2.90)), living in rural area (AOR = 2.08; (95% CI: 1.10-4.19)) and less frequency of feeding (AOR = 2.13; (95% CI: 1.18- 3.82)) were signifcantly associated with stunting. Conclusion: This study shows that, the prevalence of stunting among children aged 6-59 months in Lasta Woreda is higher as compared to the national fgures (MEDHS, 2014). Being male, increasing age, large family size, giving leftover food, poor wealth status, and illiterate parents were factors associated with stunting. Urgent, therapeutic and targeted supplementary feeding programs need to be considered for chronically malnourished children in Lasta Woreda to reduce stunting. Factors associated to stunting as identifed with this study need to be considered for the intervention plan. Keywords: Stunting; 6-59 months children; Lasta Woreda; Ethiopia infections [3,4]. Improved nutrition with adequate feeding and care develop the intellectual ability of the children [5]. Globally under nutrition, cause 45% of all deaths of children younger than fve years, which is equivalent to 3.1 million deaths [6,7]. Worldwide out of four children, one is stunted and in developing countries one in three and specifcally in Africa two out of fve children’s sufered with stunting [5,8]. In Ethiopia, more than 2 out of every 5 children stunted, Background Stunting refers to low height-for-age as a result of chronic malnutrition. Stunting in children under fve is defned as a height for age less than Z-scores below minus two standard deviations (−2SD) of the World Health Organization (WHO) child growth standards median [1,2]. Stunting has negative consequence for a child’s physical and mental development. Children who are stunted tend to achieve lower scores on intelligence and are more likely to become afected by Special Article – Public Health Stunting and Associated Factors among Children Aged 6-59 Months in Lasta Woreda, North East Ethiopia, 2015: A Community Based Cross Sectional Study Design Birhanu A 1 , Mekonen S 1 , Atenafu A 1 and Abebaw D 2 * 1 University of Gondar, Collage of Medicine and Health Science, Institute of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Ethiopia 2 Department of Research and Training, Amanuel Mental Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia *Corresponding author: Dessie Abebaw, Department of Research and Training, Amanuel Mental Specialized Hospital, Ethiopia Received: February 09, 2017; Accepted: March 03, 2017; Published: March 10, 2017