Socio-Economic, Environmental, and Behavioural Factors Associated with the Occurrence of Diarrhoeal Disease among Under-Five Children, Meskanena Mareko Woreda, Southern Ethiopia

Mulugeta, Teklu (2003) Socio-Economic, Environmental, and Behavioural Factors Associated with the Occurrence of Diarrhoeal Disease among Under-Five Children, Meskanena Mareko Woreda, Southern Ethiopia. Masters thesis, Addis Ababa University.

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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 thatdisposed 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.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine R Medicine > RJ Pediatrics > RJ101 Child Health. Child health services
Divisions:	Africana
Depositing User:	Emmanuel Ndorimana
Date Deposited:	26 Jul 2018 07:18
Last Modified:	26 Jul 2018 07:18
URI:	http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/8165

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