A Cross Sectional Study of Socio-demographic Determinant of Diarrhea among Underfive Children of Rural Area of District-Hapur

Diarrhea constitutes one of the major causes of infant mortality and morbidity in developing countries. India is among top 15 countries in number of deaths in underfive children due to diarrhea.

To study the Socio-demographic determinant of diarrhea among under five children of rural area of district-Hapur

By using Pre design semi structure questionnaire, a Cross Sectional Study was conducted on 200 children (200 mothers) of 0–5 year aged who attended OPD at RHTC in rural area of Hapur district between September–October 2015.

A total 200 children's were surveyed. The study population comprised of 13 children of 0–12 month age, 68 children of 13–36 month age and 119 children 37–60 month of age. There were 36 children under the age of 5 year suffering from diarrhea within two week prior to the date of interview, thus the overall prevalence of diarrhea was 18%. Diarrhea among children 0–12 month age was 23.1%, 13–36 month age children was 22.1% and 37–60 month age children was 15.1%. Gender distribution show that diarrhea was more in male children 23.4% as compared to female children 11.8%. When enquired about the health seeking behavior during diarrheal illness, majority (47.2%) of cases took treatment by government doctor/hospital and 30.6% consulted unqualified practitioners (quacks). An important finding of the study was that only 2.8% of children took treatment from child specialist and 19.4% of the children were left to their fate and were not given any treatment. Only 33.3% of children received ORS.

Mothers’ literacy, socioeconomic status, sanitation and hygiene practice were important determinants of diarrhea.