Environmental Factors Associated with Acute Diarrhea among Children Under Five Years of Age in Derashe District, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Diarrhea alone kills more children than AIDS, malaria, and measles combined. Knowing the determinants of a disease enables us to design an effective intervention. Objective: To identify the factors associated with acute diarrhea among Children less than five Years of Age in Derashe district, south Ethiopia. Methods: A community based unmatched case-control study was employed in rural kebeles of the district. The collected data were entered in Epi Info version3.5.3. Data analyses were done using SPSS for windows version 16.0. Descriptive analysis was used to describe the data. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to measure the association between the dependent variable and independent variables calculating odds ratio and its 95% confidence interval (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. Results: The study revealed that the occurrence of diarrhea was significantly associated with the lack of latrine ownership (AOR: 2.43, CI:1.19-4.87), lack of home based water treatment (AOR: 2.25, CI:1.43-3.56) improper disposal of infant feces [AOR:3.35, 95% CI (1.45-4.13)]and lack of improved water sources (AOR: 1.98, CI:1.16- 2.23).Conclusions and recommendation: The determinants of acute diarrhea in this study were that of high preventive value; latrine ownership, availability of home based water treatment and source of water. The authors of the study recommend health education on different mechanisms in diarrheal disease causation and prevention methods.