Determinants of diarrhoeal diseases: a community based study in urban south western Ethiopia.
OBJECTIVE
To identify the determinants and describe the extent of diarrhoeal diseases among under-five children in urban Ethiopia.


METHODS
Community based, cross-sectional study.


METHODS
Jimma, a town in south western Ethiopia, is an urban area with multi-ethnic population. The town is divided into 20 kebelles. Each kebelle has a population of about 5000 people.


METHODS
Six hundred and five children under the age of five years were selected by random sampling. There were 142 children with diarrhoeal diseases in selected households. All those without diarrhoea were taken as controls.


RESULTS
The incidence at diarrhoeal diseases was 5.48 episodes per child per year. The incidence of persistent diarrhoea was 7.75%. About 24.5% of the acute diarrhoeal diseases (ADD) culminated to persistent diarrhoea. Well source of water, lack of complete immunization, attack of measles and acute respiratory infecions (ARI) in the previous two weeks were found to be significantly associated with occurrence of diarrhoeal disease; however, only ARI and well water were retained in the logistic regression analysis.


CONCLUSIONS
The incidence of diarrhoeal diseases and the progression to persistent diarrhoea are very high. Many of the socio-environmental factors did not appear as significant determinants independently. The implication of this is that in a homogenous and economically deprived society improvement in a single factor does not reduce the problem of diarrhoeal diseases. Hence, an inter-sectoral approach is recommended to control diarrhoeal diseases.
Mekasha
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Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Addis Ababa University, PO Box 405, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Tesfahun
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D017677:Age Distribution; D015984:Causality; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005002:Ethiopia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014881:Water Supply / Q000706:statistics & numerical data