Diarrhoeal diseases and its associated factors among children 1-5 years of age in a rural area of Jammu.

Background: Mortality due to diarrhoea has declined in the recent years; still it is the second leading cause of death in children under five years of age leading to 13% of deaths in this age-group. Objectives: To study the burden of diarrhoeal diseases among children 1-5 years of age and to study its association with socio-demographic and dietary factors. Methodology: 750 children from 15 clusters comprising of 50 subjects from each cluster were selected using multi-stage random sampling technique. Mothers (or care-giver) of the eligible children were interviewed to obtain information whether their children had diarrhoea in the last 2 weeks preceding date of interview and factors like age gender socio-economic status of the family breast-feeding and complementary feeding practices Vit-A prophylaxis received along with the nutritional status of the child. Results: The prevalence of diarrhoea in the sample studied was 21.2%. Diarrhoea was found to be significantly associated with age of the child (p value <0.001) and socio-economic status of the family (p value 0.01). The prevalence of diarrhoea was found to be high (22.6%) among children who started weaning after the age of 12 months. There was a negative association between prevalence of diarrhoea with Vit-A supplementation (p value 0.01) and nutritional status (p value 0.01). Conclusion: Diarrhoea continues to be burdensome morbidity among under-fives. Effective implementation of factors considered as essential components of various child care programmes like nutrition education growth monitoring appropriate age of weaning Vit-A supplementation along with improvement of nutritional status of the children needs emphasis.