[Current situation on the treatment modules of diarrhea cases in 12 counties/cities of Guangdong, Henan and Gansu provinces in China].
OBJECTIVE
To understand the situation of diarrhea cases treatment modules in the areas and to provide reference data for setting up national strategies for treatment and control of diarrhea diseases.


METHODS
Using the method of multistage and cluster random sampling, we selected twelve counties/cities and 60 streets communities/villages from Guangdong, Henan and Gansu provinces that representing three kinds of economic development. According to the definition of diarrhea case published by World Health Organization, we conducted a four-time investigation at the community level in four different seasons.


RESULTS
The overall incidence of diarrhea within two weeks was 0.79% (95%CI: 0.74% - 0.84%) in the residents from twelve counties/districts in Guangdong, Henan and Gansu. The incidence rate within two weeks under the 5 years old was 2.30% (95%CI: 1.96% - 2.67%), obviously higher than the incidence rates seen in other age groups. The average percentage of visiting a doctor seeking for help on diarrhea within the two weeks was 55.89% for the three provinces. The highest percentage was 79.88% in the age group under 5 years old. 35.38% of the patients with diarrhea in urban area went to the community or street clinics for treatment, but 75.04% of the diarrhea cases in rural areas went to see village or private rural doctors. Factors influencing the behaviors of visiting a doctor seeking for help were found by logistic Regression method. It was found that factors as: when diarrhea cases with voluminous or soft-rice like watery stools or with dark blood stools; when a patient was with fever, more episodes per day or with longer duration, the patients would turn more to the doctors for help. Diarrhea cases from the rural areas would see doctors more often than the cases from the urban areas. People having had partial 'new rural medical insurance' would see doctors more often than those without medical insurance.


CONCLUSIONS
We studied the modules of diarrhea case treatment between the urban and rural area in Guangdong, Henan and Gansu provinces and found that the percentages of visiting a doctor for diarrhea treatment in the rural areas was higher than that in the urban areas. Both residents at all age and under 5 years old, the percentage of visiting a doctor for diarrhea treatment showed a sharp increase in the last two decades.
Zhang
Jing
J
School of Public Health, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing 100083, China.
Liu
Min
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D002947:Cities; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult