Abstract
Background: Gastroenteritis, also known as infectious diarrhea, is inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract the stomach and small intestine. Symptoms may include diarrhea, vomiting and abdominal pain. The aim of this work was to reduce morbidity and mortality from chronic gastroenteritis among preschool children. Methods: This case control study was carried out on 100 study children < five years having chronic gastroenteritis and 100 control children were healthy children chosen randomly from children attending nurseries and from the same family health care unit, they were matched by age and sex with cases. Results: Age of child, residence, fathers education and job and mothers age and education were not found to significantly affect occurrence of chronic diarrhea among studied children. Crowding index and family size had high odds ratio whereas the odds of exposure to a high crowding index (more than or equal to 2) among cases were double that among the control. Odds of exposure to a large family size (more than or equal to 5) among cases were double that among the control (p>0.05). Fathers age >40 years in cases was 25% which was higher than 13% of control (OR=2.231).
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