Environmental Determinants of Diarrhea among Under-Five Children in Nekemte Town, Western Ethiopia

Abstract

ISEE-0112 Background and Objective: Though the relationship between environmental risk factors and the occurrence of diarrhea in children has been documented elsewhere, there are limited studies in Ethiopia in general and in Nekemte Town in particular. The present study assessed the prevalence and environmental determinants of under-five diarrheal morbidity. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Nekemte town from October 15-November 26, 2007. The study population constituted four hundred and seventy seven mothers/ care takers of index under-five children living in households selected randomly from kebeles in the town. Data was collected using a structured and pre-tested questionnaire, which was then entered onto a computer and edited and analyzed using SPSS for Windows version 12.0.1. The Stepwise logistic regression model was used to calculate the odds ratios and 95% confidence interval for the different risk factors. Results: Out of 477 sampled caretaker-child pairs, 461 participated in the study giving a response rate of 96.6%. The mean ages of the respondents and the index children were 32.4 (+8.8 SD) years and 25.27 (+15.16 SD) months, respectively. Prevalence of diarrheal morbidity over a period of two weeks preceding the study was about 28.9%. In the Bivariate analysis, a number of risk factors including distance from drinking water sources (time taken to-and-from the sources), availability & ownership of the latrine, refuse disposal, the presence of feces around the pit-hole (P < 0.001) and presence or absence of pit-hole cover & feces seen in the compound (P < 0.05) appeared to be significantly associated with under-five childhood diarrheal morbidity. However, absence of a refuse disposal facility and presence of feces around the pit-hole were the only significant variables on multivariate analyses (P < 0.05). Conclusion: As diarrheal morbidity is a major problem among under-five children in Nekemte town, appropriate intervention programs, targeting availability of refuse disposal facilities and care of latrines, should be designed.