Determinants of Acute Diarrhoea among Children Aged 6-59 Months in Chire District, Southern Ethiopia: Unmatched Case-Control Study

Background: Acute diarrhoea is a major global health problem, and the developing countries like Ethiopia bear the huge share of the burden. As of 2015, Ethiopia stands sixth among fifteen high diarrhoea death occurring countries in the world. Chire district is one of the affected areas in South Ethiopia despite the absence of scientific evidences of driving factors. Thus, this study was aimed to assess the determinants of acute diarrhoea among under-five year aged children in Chire district of Southern Ethiopia. Methods: Facility based unmatched case-control study was conducted in three purposely selected health centers. Five hundred twelve children were included into two groups, 256 cases and 256 controls. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the study subjects. Standardized structured questionnaire was used for data collection and SPSS version 20.0 for data analysis. Descriptive analysis, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression model were used to identify the associated factors. Results: The study showed that age of 6-11 months [AOR: 2.43, 95% CI, (1.28, 4.61)], five or more persons in the house-hold [AOR: 2.69, 95%CI, (1.50, 4.83)], inappropriate disposal of infant feces [AOR: 3.69, 95%CI, (1.13, 6.49)], lack of vitamin-A supplementation [AOR: 3.44, 95%CI, (1.82, 6.49)], maternal history of recent diarrhoea [AOR: 1.68, 95%CI, (1.07, 2.65)] and poor knowledge of respondents about risk factors were significantly associated with acute diarrhoea. Conclusion: Majorities of identified findings have strong association with the maternal or care-takers behavior. Thus, the responsible bodies, especially the district health office and the health extension workers are highly required to provide the intensive and regular health education on the causes and consequences of disease. In addition, vitamin-A should be supplemented as per national guideline.