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

Abstract

Introduction: 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.

Methods: 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.

Results: 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).

Conclusions: 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.