Research Article Associated Factors of Wasting among Infants and Young Children (IYC) in Kuyu District, Northern Oromia, Ethiopia Tamiru Yazew and Agama Daba Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Wollega University, Shambu, Ethiopia Correspondence should be addressed to Tamiru Yazew; tamiruyazew2012@gmail.com Received 2 April 2022; Accepted 20 June 2022; Published 30 June 2022 Academic Editor: Dorota Formanowicz Copyright © 2022 Tamiru Yazew and Agama Daba. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Wasting among infants and young children in underdeveloped countries including Ethiopia is one of the most serious public health issues. Therefore, this study was designed to assess the magnitude of wasting and the variables that associate with it among infants and young children in the Kuyu district of Northern Oromia, Ethiopia. A community-based cross-sectional study of 612 infants and young children aged 6-23 months was conducted. To select eligible infants and young children from each family in the Kuyu district, a multilevel sampling approach was used. The amount and determinants related to wasting were investigated using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. In the study area, 14.1% of infants and young children were found to be wasting. Maternal educational status (AOR = 1:8, 95% CI; 1.01, 4.32), diarrhoea (AOR = 2:3, 95% CI; 1.98, 4.56), exclusive breastfeeding (AOR = 2:46, 95% CI, 1.4, 4.58), antenatal care visits (AOR = 2:21; 95% CI, 1.32, 3.48), and wealth index (AOR = 1:66, 95% CI; 1.07, 4.47) were significantly associated with wasting. According to the findings of this study, mother educational status, the occurrence of diarrhoea, exclusive breastfeeding, antenatal care visits, and wealth index have an impact on infants and young children’s wasting. Therefore, to lower the burden of wasting among infants and young children in the study, community-based schooling and nutritional interventions are urgently needed. 1. Introduction Wasting is one of the world’s most difficult issues, affecting mostly underprivileged and disadvantaged areas [1], and it causes disease and mortality in infants and young children [2]. Its high occurrence has been shown to have negative consequences on a child’s survival, growth, and cognitive development [3]. In developing countries, it is a well- known indicator of infant and young child nutrition [4]. Worldwide, 51 million infants and young children are expected to be underweight for their height [5]. This preva- lence was estimated to be 12.9%, with almost 90% of people residing in low- and middle-income countries [6]. While worldwide wasting in infants and young children is decreasing, Africa estimates that 10% of infants and young children are moderate to severely wasted [7]. Despite Ethio- pia’s initiatives to fight poverty and food insecurity, many rural areas are still exposed to food insecurity and wasting due to seasonal factors [8, 9]. According to a study con- ducted in the southern region of Ethiopia, wasting affects 14.6% of infants and young children [10]. A review and meta analysis conducted in Ethiopia estimated that the prevalence of wasting among infants and young children was 15% [11]. Wasting has also been observed to be prevalent (16.2%) among infants and young children in the Afar reginal state of Ethiopia [12]. Furthermore, a wasting prevalence of 7% was observed in the Ethiopian Mini Demographic and Health Survey in 2016 [13]. Several Ethiopian study findings have found that socio- economic and demographic variables influence the preva- lence of wasting among infants and young children [14, 15]. Infant and young child wasting is linked to poor food intake, housing, and water quality [14]. Moreover, birth order [15, 16], a lack of screening [17, 18], and diarrhoea [12, 19–21] have all been linked to wasting. The gender of infants and young children and their age are characterized as variables that influence wasting [17, 22, 23]. Wasting is also linked to educational status [24, 25], occupational status Hindawi BioMed Research International Volume 2022, Article ID 9170322, 8 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/9170322