Determinants of acute diarrhoea among children under five years of age in Derashe District, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Diarrhoea kills more children than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. Knowing the determinants of a disease enables us to design an effective intervention. The objective of this study was to identify the determinants of acute diarrhoea and associated factors among children under 5 years of age in Derashe district, south Ethiopia. A community based unmatched case-control study supplemented with Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) was employed in rural kebeles (neighborhoods) of the district. Collected data were entered in Epi Info v3.5.3 (wwwn.cdc.gov/epiinfo/info/) and descriptive data analyses were performed using SPSS v16.0 (www.spss.com). Binary logistic regression analysis was used to measure the association between dependent and independent variables, calculating odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Statistical significance was set at α ≤0.05. Multivariable analyses were applied to identify the relative effect of explanatory variables on the dependent variable. The study revealed that the occurrence of diarrhoea was significantly associated with lack of latrine ownership (adjusted [A] OR: 2.43, CI:1.19-4.87), lack of home-based water treatment (AOR: 2.25, CI:1.43-3.56), lack of improved water sources (AOR: 1.98, CI:1.16- 2.23) and consumption of left-over food (AOR: 1.65, CI:1.01-2.71). The determinants of acute diarrhoea were of high preventive value (latrine ownership, availability of home-based water treatment, source of water and consumption of left-over food stored at room temperature), therefore health education on different mechanisms in diarrhoeal disease causation, and prevention methods, is recommended.