| Summary: | Mohammed Hasen,1 Henok Asefa,2 Naod Berhanu,3 Falaho Sani1 1Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program, Faculty of Public Health, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia; 2Departments of Epidemiology, Faculty of Public Health, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia; 3Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program, Jimma University, Jimma, EthiopiaCorrespondence: Mohammed Hasen P. O. Box: 61, Gindhir, EthiopiaTel +251923728803Email direhasen@gmail.comBackground: Malnutrition is a serious disease and remains an important public health problem in many developing countries including Ethiopia. Malnutrition is one of the diseases under the surveillance system, which is reported weekly and monthly. In the Bale zone, malnutrition is one of the major public health problems. Therefore, this trend analysis of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) was used to describe the magnitude, trends, disease outcome and geographical distribution of the SAM in Bale Zone from 2014 to 2017.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in April 2018. Data were extracted from the Bale zone’s monthly malnutrition report database and checked for completeness and consistency; then, four years’ worth of trends of SAM were analyzed. The prevalence and trend of SAM by Woreda, year and age were analyzed using Microsoft Office Excel 2016 and SPSS version 20 then summarized using text, tables, and figures.Results: A total of 37,678 SAM cases were registered over four years (2014– 2017). Of these, 31,642 (84%) were cured, 52 (0.14%) died, 641 (1.7%) were defaulters, and 66 (0.18%) were non-respondents. Among registered cases, 98.2% are in the 6– 59 months age groups. The average annual prevalence of SAM high among under-five children was 3.3%. The prevalence rates per 1000 people suffering from SAM in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 are 3.6, 4.5, 7.5, and 4.7 respectively, and the death rates were 0.21%, 0.26%, 0.1%, and 0.08%, respectively. Among the Woreda, the highest prevalence was at Delomena (2.45%) and the lowest was at Sinana woreda (0.1%). The death rate is high among the 6– 59 months age groups (0.13%) and followed by the 6 months of group (0.008%).Conclusion: Cases of SAM increased between 2014 and 2016 and then decreased during 2017. The prevalence of SAM was high in the under-five age group of children in the Bale zone during the study period and the Delomena Woreda has the highest average annual prevalence of SAM. We recommend further research on why some districts have a high prevalence of SAM.Keywords: malnutrition, trends, Bale zone
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