A Stepwise Regression Analysis on Under-five Diarrhoael Morbidity Prevalence in Nekemte Town, Western Ethiopia: Maternal Care Giving and Hygiene Behavioral Determinants

Objective: Various studies have addressed the relationship between maternal care giving behaviours including hygiene behaviours and the occurrence of diarrhoea in children. However, very few studies have done in Ethiopia in general and none exist in Nekemte town, western Ethiopia. Therefore, the present study aimed to estimate the prevalence of under-five diarrhoea morbidity in relation to mothers/care takers behaviours including hygiene behavioural determinants. Methods: Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Nekemte town, western Ethiopia from October 15- November 26, 2007. 477 mothers/ care takers of index under-five children living in the households selected randomly from sub cities in the town formed the study population. Structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect data. The data were entered into a computer, edited and analyzed using SPSS for windows version 12.01. Stepwise logistic regression model was used to calculate the Odds ratios and 95% confidence interval for the different risk factors was considered. Results: From 477, 461 were participated in the study giving a response rate of 96.6%. The mean ages of the respondents and the index children were about 32.4 (+8.8 SD) years and 25.27(+15.16 SD) months respectively. Diarrhoea morbidity prevalence over a period of two weeks preceding the study was about 28.9%. Although several maternal cares giving and hygiene-related risk factors showed significant association with diarrhoea morbidity on bivariate analysis, the use of cover material during drinking water transportation, faeces seen around the pit-hole and bottle feeding were the only significant variables on multivariate analysis. Conclusion: As diarrhoea morbidity was major problem among under-five children in Nekemte town, appropriate intervention programmes should be formulated focused on identified risk factors