Abstract:
Background: Diarrhea is the second leading cause of mortality and morbidity next to
pneumonia among under-five year children. The burden of the disease being greatest in
developing world including Ethiopia. Even though there were studies that were done on
diarrheal morbidity in many parts of Ethiopia, there is a scarcity of data on determinants of
childhood diarrhea in the district.
Objective: To assess the determinants of diarrheal morbidity among under-five children in
Adami Tulu Jido Kombolcha district, Central Ethiopia, from December 1 to January 15-2020.
Method: Facility based case-control study on sample population of 287 cases and 287 controls
was conducted. The study participants were consecutively selected from three health centers
of Adami Tulu Jido Kombolcha district. Data collection was done by six data collectors; two
clinical nurses from each health centers and two supervisors. Data collection tool was
structured questionnaire translated in to local language; Afaan Oromo. The data entry was done
using EPi- Data version 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 21 software. Descriptive
statistics was used to summarize study variables. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was
employed to evaluate independent predictors of diarrheal morbidity. P-value of less than 0.05
was used as a cut off point for statistical significance.
Results: Of the studied variables, children in the age group of 6-23 months (AOR=2.2;95%
CI=1.40,3.29), family size (AOR1.81;95% CI=1.20,2.71), father’s occupation
(AOR=2.59;95% CI=1.49,4.48), time child started complementary feeding (AOR=1.61;95%
CI=1.09,2.39), child feeding material (AOR=2.64; 95% CI=1.63,4.28), child vaccination
status (AOR=2.04;95% CI=1.34,3.10) unimproved water source (AOR=1.86;95%
CI=1.12,3.11), mothers hand washing practices (AOR=1.79;95% CI=1.21,2.64) and bottle
feeding (AOR=2.14;95% CI=1.36,3.35) were significantly associated with diarrhea.
Conclusion. The potential determinants of diarrhea were concluded to be age group of 6-23
months, family size of the household, occupation of father, source of water, hand washing
practice of mother and feeding practices of child. Thus, efforts should be made on provision
of safe drinking water to the community, and giving of tailored health education for women on
child feeding.
