Caretakers’ hygiene practices towards occurrence of diarrhea to under-five years in semi-pastoralist society in Siha District, Tanzania

Abstract

ABSTRACT Introduction: The occurrence of diarrhea among children under-five years of age is associated with poor hand hygiene, unsafe drinking water, un-proper fecal disposal practices and poor child feeding practices among caretakers.

Objective: The aim of the study was to assess caretakers’ hygiene practices associated with the occurrence of diarrhea among children of under-five years in semi-pastoralist society in Siha District.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study design which done using quantitative approach. Multistage cluster sampling was used to sample research wards, villages and household. Questionnaire with structured questions was used to collect data. Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 22. Descriptive statistics and Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to determine factors that are strongly associated with dependent variable and p<0.05 was considered to have a significance association.

Results: About 24.6% of the children below five years of age under the study have been reported to have suffered from diarrhea. Caretakers poor hand washing after using toilet and after washing the defecated child, Family members behavior of drinking the untreated water, the use of any utensils or the same cup for drawing and drinking water, caretakers poor hand hygiene before child’s food preparations and feeding and the improper child feces disposal were associated with the occurrence of diarrhea among children. Conclusion: The study reveals that, caretakers poor hand hygiene at the critical time, improper handling of drinking water, unhygienic food preparation and feeding together with poor management of human feces were associated with the occurrences of diarrhea among children