The Occurrence of Childhood Diarhea and Its Home Management among Mothers of Under-Five Years Children in Arba Minch Zuria, Southern Ethiopia

Introduction: In Ethiopia the prevalence of diarrhea morbidity is more common in rural than in urban areas. To address this problem, interventions have been going on based on the guidelines. There is no study that assessed whether the management of childhood diarrhea is according to the guideline or not. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the occurrence of childhood diarrhea and its home management among mother of under-five year children in Arba Minch Zuria. Methods: A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in February 2012. A multistage sampling technique was used to select 590 households that had at least one under-five child. Data were collected using pre-tested structured questionnaire by trained data collectors. The data were entered and analyzed using SPSS (SPSS Inc. version 16.0, Chicago, Illinois). Descriptive statistics (frequencies, proportion and chi- square test) were used to describe the study population in relation to relevant variables. Results: In this study prevalence of diarrhea was found 30.5%. which was significantly associated with mother education level (X2 = 6.0397,df =1, p-value =0.0139), knowledge about diarrhea (X2 = 5.0234,df =1, p-value =0.0250), floor types of the house (X2 = 5.1428,df=1, p-value =0.0233). number of rooms (X2 = 30.46,df=2, p-value <0.00001), latrine type ((X2 = 25.5929,df=1, p-value <0.00001), type of water transportation container(X2 = 47.878,df=1, p-value = 0.00001 ), and mother hand washing practice (X2 = 15.4182,df=1, p-value = 0.0001). The study also showed 31% of mothers didn’t give anything to control or manage the diarrhea. Conclusion: The finding showed that the occurrence of diarrhea is high in the study area. As significant number of the mothers do not have adequate knowledge on the occurrence and management of diarrhea. Counseling mothers on the three rules of home treatment; give extra fluid, continue feeding and advise the mother when to return health facility is very crucial for the control and the prevention of the disease. Reducing diarrhea morbidity also involves providing better sanitation for the entire population and hygiene of the person caring of the child.