Animal livestock and the risk of hospitalized diarrhoea in children under 5 years in Vietnam.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association between environmental exposure to livestock and incidence of diarrhoea among Vietnamese children. METHODS: A population-based cohort of 353,525 individuals, living in 75,828 households in Khanh Hoa Province, Vietnam, with baseline data covering geo-referenced information on demography, socio-economic status and household animals was investigated. Geographic information system was applied to calculate the density of livestock. The data were linked to hospitalized diarrhoea cases of children under 5 years recorded at two hospitals treating patients from the area as inpatients in the study area. RESULTS: Overall, 3116 children with diarrhoea were hospitalized during the study period. The incidence of diarrhoea hospitalization was 60.8/1000 child-years. Male gender, age