Abstract:
Diarrhea can be described as the passing of loose or liquid stools, or three or more
loose or watery stools within a 24-hour period. In 2013, of the 6.3 million children worldwide
who died before they reached their fifth birthday, about half (3.2 million) died from infectious
diseases, with diarrhea killing more than 500,000 children. There is lack of information about
under five diarrheal morbidity done before in this area.
Objectives: To assess the prevalence of diarrheal diseases and associated factors among under five children in Awbarre district urban kebeles, Somali Region, Eastern Ethiopia
Methods: A community based cross-sectional study design was used to conduct this study.
Systematic sampling technique was used to select 436 households that had at least one under-five
child from 3 randomly selected kebeles. Data were collected using World Health Organization
core questionnaire through interview and observational checklists by trained data collectors, and
then it was entered in to EpiData version3.2 software and exported to SPSS version 20 software
for analysis. Descriptive statistics (frequencies, proportion, tables) were used to describe the
study population in relation to relevant variables. To identify independent predictors of
childhood diarrheal diseases, only variables that were statistically significant (p<0.25) during
binary logistic regression were entered into multiple logistic regression model to control the
effects of confounders. Odd Ratios along with 95% CI and P value =< 0.05, was used to declare
the independent predictors of childhood diarrheal diseases for this study.
Result: The two weeks diarrheal diseases prevalence among under-five children in this study
was 15.8%(95% CI: 12.4, 19.5), which was significantly associated with child’s being from
mothers/caregivers of households not treating drinking water before use (AOR:2.23; 95%CI
1.25, 4.36) and being from mothers/caregivers who were disposing solid wastes of the
households improperly (AOR:4.81; 95%CI 2.00, 11.58).
Conclusion: Improper disposal of household’s solid wastes and not treating household’s
drinking water were the main causes of diarrhea according to this study. Therefore educational
interventions to reduce diarrheal diseases among under five children focusing on water treatment
use and safe disposal of household’s solid wastes should be encouraged and enhanced
