Association of water handling and child feeding practice with childhood diarrhoea in rural community of Southern Nepal

Abstract

Diarrhoea is a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality globally. While the childhood diarrhoea and its association with child feeding, and hygiene, hand washing and water treatment are studied elsewhere, the association of water handling and child feeding with childhood diarrhoea is an understudied area in Nepal. This study aimed to investigate the association of water handling and child feeding practice with childhood diarrhoea among children of one to five years of age in Southern, Nepal. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the Dhanusha district of Southern Nepal in 2013. A total of 284 mother-child pairs were selected using systemic random sampling. A four-week prevalence of childhood diarrhoea was reported using frequency distribution. The association of childhood diarrhoea with water handling and child feeding practices was ascertained using multiple logistic regressions after adjusting for potential confounders. The result of the study demonstrated that the four-week prevalence of childhood diarrhoea was 36.6%. Our finding showed that unsafe water handling practices were associated independently with childhood diarrhoea: untreated water (aOR 3.55; 95% CI: 1.13-11.10), uncovered water (aOR 2.14; 95% CI: 1.09-4.19). Similarly, partial breast feeding (aOR 4.35; 95% CI: 1.87-10.12) was also associated with higher odds of childhood diarrhoea. One third of children in Southern Nepal still had diarrhoea within the four weeks preceding the survey. As poor water handling and sub optimal infant feeding practice were major risk factors contributing to such a high burden of the disease, health promotion strategies such as promotion of safe water handling, improved hygiene and child feeding practices are recommended for the prevention of childhood diarrhoea in Southern Terai of Nepal.

Incidence Risk Factors for Severe Dehydration in Hospitalized Children in Ujjain, India

“…However, increased the risk of acute diarrhoea in rural areas has also been reported [25]. The most important underlying factors in both urban and rural areas are Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) related an include: the faecal contamination of drinking water, the lack of personal hygiene especially during water handling, inadequate hand washing after defecation [9,10,26,27]. The children of illiterate mothers have a nearly two-fold increased risk of severe dehydration in our study.…”

“…Despite its consequences on health and survival, the last decade has witnessed a reduction of research on childhood diarrhoea [5]. As an example, only a few studies on epidemiological and clinical risk factors in for childhood diarrhoea from India, have been conducted [9][10][11][12][13], but the burden of diarrhoeal diseases remains high [14]. To achieve the goal of ending preventable deaths due to diarrhoea the WHO and UNICEF emphasise the need for more research focusing on identifying context specific risk factors and interventions to control childhood diarrhoea [1].…”

Associations between infant and young child feeding practices and acute respiratory infection and diarrhoea in Ethiopia: A propensity score matching approach

“…Previous studies conducted in Vietnam [64], Nepal [65], and Brazil [66] have suggested that predominant breastfeeding, which is the provision of non-milk fluids (such as water, tea, and juices) in addition to breastmilk to infants, can increase the risk of childhood diarrhoea. However, the present study found that predominant breastfeeding was associated with a lower odds of infants to experience diarrhoea in Ethiopia.…”

Incidence and Risk Factors for Severe Dehydration in Hospitalized Children in Ujjain, India

“…Moreover, in many places in India, child faeces are not disposed of safely [10,24,26]. Similar WASH related environmental risk factors for diarrhoea have been reported recently from Mozambique, Tanzania and Nepal [35][36][37]. Environmental enteric dysfunction is now considered the most important causes of stunting in children with diarrhoea in low-middle-income countries [4,38].…”