Abstract
BackgroundDiarrhea is second only to pneumonia as the cause of child mortality worldwide. Developing countries particularly in Sub Saharan Africa including Ethiopia have a high burden of this disease. Studies showed that different factors were associated with the occurrence of childhood diarrhea. Therefore, this study was aimed to identify determinant factors of diarrhea in underfive children in Benishangul Gumuz Regional State, western Ethiopia.MethodDemographic and Health Survey (DHS) data of 2011 was used for this study. The data was extracted from the National DHS data using data extraction tools. A total of 925 under five children were selected. The logistic regression model was employed to examine the determinants of childhood diarrhoea. Both bivariate and multivariate data analysis was performed using SPSS version 16.0.ResultThe results of this study indicated that low level of maternal education [AOR = 1.81, 95% CI (1.12,2.76)], absence of toilet facility [AOR = 3.5, 95% CI (2.4, 5.2)], improper child stool disposal methods [AOR = 2.05, 95%CI (1.36, 3.10)], having more than two under five children [AOR = 1.73, 95% CI (1.03, 2.93)], higher birth order [AOR = 6.1, 95% CI (3.1,12.2)] and the age of children [AOR = 1.9, 95% CI (1.2, 3.6)] were found to be the risk factors for childhood diarrhea after adjusting for other variables. When toilet facility was stratified by maternal education, it showed that children of mothers who had no education were the most vulnerable in the absence of toilet facilities [OR = 9.16, 95% CI (5.79, 14.48)].ConclusionUnder poor environmental conditions, mothers with primary education and above protected their children against diarrhea better than mothers with no education. Thus, implementing effective educational programs that emphasize environmental health and sanitation practices and encouraging female school enrolment would reduce childhood diarrheal morbidity in the region.
Highlights
Diarrhea is second only to pneumonia as the cause of child mortality worldwide
Result: The results of this study indicated that low level of maternal education [AOR = 1.81, 95% CI (1.12,2.76)], absence of toilet facility [AOR = 3.5, 95% CI (2.4, 5.2)], improper child stool disposal methods [AOR = 2.05, 95%CI (1.36, 3.10)], having more than two under five children [AOR = 1.73, 95% CI (1.03, 2.93)], higher birth order [AOR = 6.1, 95% CI (3.1,12.2)] and the age of children [AOR = 1.9, 95% CI (1.2, 3.6)] were found to be the risk factors for childhood diarrhea after adjusting for other variables
The analysis showed about a 60% reduction of childhood diarrhea in households who disposed the stool of children in a safe way than those children from households who disposed stool in an unsafe manner [OR: 0.38, 95% CI (0.27, 0.53)]
Summary
Diarrhea is second only to pneumonia as the cause of child mortality worldwide. Developing countries in Sub Saharan Africa including Ethiopia have a high burden of this disease. This study was aimed to identify determinant factors of diarrhea in underfive children in Benishangul Gumuz Regional State, western Ethiopia. Diarrhoea is the second gravest killer of underfive children worldwide [1]. 2.5 billion cases of diarrhoea likely to result in death or other service outcomes occur among underfive children. Studies and reports on child morbidity and mortality in Ethiopia show that diarrhoea is a major public health problem [3,4]. According to the 2010 report of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development’s (MOFED), 20% of the childhood death in the country was due to diarrhoea. Different community based surveys on childhood morbidity and mortality in Ethiopia at different places disclosed three episodes of diarrhoea per child per year [7].
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