Determinants of recurrent diarrhea disease among children of under-five years residing in Tandale ward.

Abstract

Background: Recurrent diarrhea among under-five children is a serious public health problem in Tanzania as it contributes much to under-five morbidity and mortality and overall disease burden in the country. The prevalence of diarrhea recurrence among under-five children in this study was 37% which is higher than that obtained from Kinondoni DHI records (22%) before the study. Limited studies have been conducted on diarrhea recurrence within the country; most of them were focused on the single episode of diarrhea. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to determine the prevalence of recurrence diarrhea among under-five children in Tandale ward. Broad objective: To determine the prevalence of recurrence diarrhea and factors associated with it among under-five children in Tandale ward from July 2016 to June 2017. Materials & methods: A cross sectional study was conducted with a sample of 420 households with under- five children in Tandale Ward. Both purposive and simple random sampling technique was used to select the study population. Data were collected by using observation checklist and interviewer administered questionnaire. Mothers/caretaker of under-five was asked the questions on diarrhea recurrence of under five children in his/her household. A chi squared test was used to determine the association between independent and outcome variables and it was considered significant if P-value is less than 0.05. Univariate and Multivariate logistic regression technique was used to determine independent predictors for recurrent diarrhea among under-five children. Results: A total of 420 households with mother/care takers who had under-five children were recruited into the study. Out of 420 caretaker, 343(81.7%) were child’s mothers The mean age of the care givers were 30 years (SD±9.89), with a range of 17 to 49 years. The majority of them 308 (73.3%) had attained a primary level of education and most reported to be housewives. The prevalence of recurrent diarrhea was found to be 37. Under-five children whose caretaker age was between 18-20 were 2 times more likely to diarrhea recurrence compared to older age (AOR=2.30, 95%CI=1.23-4.31), whereby under-five children live in a household with large number of people were 2 times more likely to diarrhea recurrence than those in a small size (AOR=2.336,95%CI=0.873-6.247) and those under-five children who live in Kwatumbo area/street was 4.39 times more likely to suffer diarrhea recurrence compare to those who live in Sokoni are/ street (AOR = 5.39 (95% CI 3.08-9.44) . Those Conclusion: The findings in this study shows high prevalence of recurrent diarrhoea (37.8 %) Reducing congestion and overcrowding in the household will reduce the high prevalence of diarrhea recurrence in under-five children in Tandale ward Kinondoni. Waste water from overflowing toilets and soak away pits being spread all over the ground. This indicates that the ground is highly contaminated with feces. Children may ingest feces from the ground during playing and crowing on the ground. Also it is habit of children to consume some amount of soil, now for the case of Tandale they consume microorganisms contained in it. Recommendation: According to the findings of the study other studies should be conducted in the same area by detailed description of the methodology to find out extent of environment contamination by microorganisms from the fecal matter and suggest for the better way to remediate the environment. Health intervention programmers including increase priority in waste water management and reducing congestion and overcrowding in the household will reduce the high prevalence of diarrhea recurrence in under-five children in Tandale ward Kinondoni.