Socio-Economic, Environmental, and Behavioural Factors Associated with the Occurrence of Diarrhoeal Disease among Under-Five Children, Meskanena Mareko Woreda, Southern Ethiopia
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Date
2003-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Diarrhoeal diseases are still the major cause of morbidity and mortality among children in
many developing countries, including Ethiopia. There is a general agreement that the cause of
child mortality and morbidity in developing countries is multi-factorial. Interaction of socioeconomic,
biological, behavioural and environmental factors influences the survival of
children. This comparative cross-sectional study was carried out to examine the effects of
socio-economic, environmental and behavioural factors that were associated with childhood
diarrhoea in Meskanena Mareko Woreda, between December 2002 and January 2003.
A total of 987 households that had at least one under-five child were randomly selected from
the nine peasant associations and one urban kebele that are found in the Butajira Rural Health
Program catchments. Information on the households' socio-economic, environmental and
behavioural characteristics was collected using structured, pre-tested questionnaire.
Diarrhoeal morbidity occurred in the under-five children at the time of the interview, and the
subsequent 15-days was registered to determine prevalence and incidence.
The findings of this study showed that the overall two-week period prevalence of diarrhoea in
under-fives was 51.4%, and that of incidence 12.9 percent. The point prevalence was found to
be 38.5 percent. Significant variation was observed in prevalence of diarrhoea between urban
and rural areas. Children in the age group 12 – 23 were highly affected. A logistic regression
analysis showed that rural children had more than five times higher odds of having diarrhoea
than their urban counterparts. The odds of having diarrhoea in children who lived in
households where there were two or more children were two times higher than the odds in
children who lived in households where there was only one child. Also, households that
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disposed refuse indiscriminately had children who had about two times higher odds of getting
diarrhoea than households that burned or disposed the refuse in a pit. Maternal diarrhoeal
morbidity and current breast-feeding were also found to be significant predictors of diarrhoeal
morbidity in children.
From the study it is concluded that the prevalence of diarrhoea in under-five children is very
high in Meskanena Mareko Woreda, especially in children who reside in rural areas, and who
are younger than two years of age. Poverty, crowding and poor environmental conditions are
associated with the occurrence of diarrhoea in children. Even though these problems may be
alleviated by sustainable socio-economic development through integrated effort of different
sectors in the long run, recommendations are forwarded considering short-term solutions
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Keywords
Diarrhoeal Diseases