ABSTRACT

Background-Malnutrition is a condition in which a nutrition deficiency, excess or imbalance of energy, protein, and other nutrients causes adverse effects on tissue/body form. Nutritional issues are common in HIV disease. At some point, almost everyone living with HIV will face challenges in maintaining good nutrition.

Objective-To assess under nutrition and associated factors among Adult Clients on Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy in Health Facilities of Bench Maji Zone, South West Ethiopia,2018.

Methods- Institutional based cross sectional study design with quantitative data collection was employed from May 01 – June 30/2018. A total sample size was 1007 and the participants were selected by using consecutive sampling technique from selected health facilities. EpiData Statistical software version 3.1 and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 21.0 were used for data entry and analysis. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated to under nutrition in adults attending ART. Odds ratios with 95 % confidence intervals were used to examine associations between dependent & independent variables. P. value less than 0.05 was considered significant.

Result: The magnitude of under nutrition among peoples on ART in this study was 154 (16.0%[13.8-18.3]). In multivariable logistic regression analysis, factors contributing to under nutrition were identified; Age [AOR 2.4, 95% CI (1.1-5.4)], marital status[AOR 2.2, 95% CI (1.3-3.7)], occupational status[AOR 0.4,95% (0.2-0.9)], developing GI symptoms [AOR 2.6, 95% CI (1.5-4.5)] and WHO clinical stage [AOR 3.1, 95% CI (1.4-6.8)] were found to have statistically significant association with under nutrition among peoples on ART.

Conclusion and Recommendation: significant numbers of peoples on ART drugs in the study area were under nutrition. Age, marital status, occupational status, WHO clinical stage of disease and developing gastro intestinal symptoms were identified factors of under nutrition among adult people on ART. The health care workers and experts work on the ART clinic should focuses on patient counseling about early prevention, detection and treatment of opportunistic infection, early health seeking behaviors before AIDs stage.

Budget: The allowed budget for this study was 68760.30 ETB.

Key words: Under nutrition, associated factors, HAART, MTU, Ethiopia