BackgroundUndernutrition is one of the major public health concerns among infants and young children in the country. Childhood under-nutrition is widespread in low and middle-income countries. This study was initiated to assess the prevalence of under-nutrition and its associated factors among under-five children in Afar Region, Ethiopia. MethodsThe data for this study were extracted from the Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) 2016. The information collected from 937 children born 5

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... years before the survey was considered in the analysis. A multivariable binary logistic regression analysis was used at a 5% level of significance to determine the individual- and community-level factors associated with childhood malnutrition.ResultsThe prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting in Afar region were 41.1%, 36.2% and 17.7%, respectively. About 26.7% of children in Afar region were both stunting and underweight, 12.7% were both underweight and wasting, 7.6% were both stunting and wasting and only 7.0% of children had all the three under-nutrition conditions. Among the factors considered in this study, age of a child in months, anemia level, mothers' BMI, household wealth index, size of child at birth, number of living children and place of residence were significantly associated with stunting, underweight and wasting in Afar Region. ConclusionsThe prevalence of all stunting, underweight and wasting was relatively high. Undernutrition is one of the major public health concerns among children in Afar Region. The effect of these factors should be considered to develop strategies to reduce under-nutrition in the study area. Thus, intervention should be focused on improving the under-nutrition determinants of the children to improve the child's nutritional status and reduce child morbidity and mortality.