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. 2022 Jan 13;22(1):92.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-12515-3.

The burden of diarrhea, etiologies, and risk factors in India from 1990 to 2019: evidence from the global burden of disease study

Deepak Kumar Behera  1 , Sanghamitra Mishra  2
Affiliations

The burden of diarrhea, etiologies, and risk factors in India from 1990 to 2019: evidence from the global burden of disease study

Deepak Kumar Behera et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: This study aims to measure the burden of diarrhea in India and analyze the trend of mortality associated with it for the past 30 years. We also intend to find the prevailing etiology and risk factors associated with diarrheal mortality in India.

Methods: The study has used the latest round of Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study-2019. GBD data is available across age groups and gender-wise over the period from 1990 to 2019. The study has identified 13 etiologies for the cause of diarrhea deaths and 20 risk factors to analyze the burden of disease.

Results: Our study shows, childhood diarrhea has declined over the years significantly, yet contributes to a larger share of DALYs associated with the disease. Among all the death cases of Diarrhea, in 2019, the most prevalent disease-causing pathogen is found to be Campylobacter. But Adenovirus is the major contributor to childhood diarrheal deaths. Though the burden of diarrhea is declining over the period, still there is a need to progress the interventions to prevent and control diarrhea rapidly to avoid the huge number of deaths and disabilities experienced in India.

Conclusions: Consumption of safe and clean water, proper sanitation facility in every household, required nutrition intake by mother and child, safe breastfeeding and stool disposal practices and careful case management, rotavirus vaccination are some of the effective interventions to be implemented all over the country. Further, evidence-based policies should be made and implemented to sustain diarrhea prevention programs.

Keywords: Burden of diarrhea; Burden of disease, India; Etiology of diarrhea; Risk factor for diarrhea.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Diarrhea mortality rate (per 100,000 population) by age, 1990–2019 in India. Note: Point represent mean estimates and error bars represents 95% uncertainty interval of the lower and upper limit
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Diarrhea DALYs rate (per 100,000 population) by age, 1990–2019 in India. Note: Point represent mean estimates and error bars represents 95% uncertainty interval of the lower and upper limit
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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