Community-level risk factors for foodborne and waterborne disease in Gyounggi province, South Korea, 2015

Abstract

Purpose: To establishing environmental health factors associated with the prevalence of diarrhea diseases in Mtendere Methods & Materials: An analytical community-based crosssectional study was conducted among 274 randomly selected household with a child aged between 6-59 months old and having lived in the area for more than six months. A mixed method design was implored in which data was collected using questionnaires, Focus Group Discussion guide, observations and water sampling forms. Logistic regression was used to adjust odds ratios at 95% confidence interval. Chi square test was used to ascertain the significance of findings at p-value of <0.05.Results: The prevalence of diarrhea among under five years of age in the study period was 37%. The most affected children were among 12 to 24 months old children. Contamination of water was more at household (74%) level than at sources (30%). The major factors associated with diarrhea were not washing hands with soap (p-Value 0.008), children from households with income higher than K2500 ($250) were 70% (p-Value 0.045) less likely to report diarrhea and equally children in households that stored drinking water in small mouth containers were 61% less likely to develop diarrhea (P-Value 0.002). Conclusion:The findings have revealed a higher prevalence of diarrhea in the under five children in Mutendere than previously estimated. The major factors associated with the prevalence of diarrhea were poor water storage, inadequate hand washing and poverty. The increase in prevalence of diarrhea could also have been due to increased ambient temperatures during the El Nino period which coincided with the study period. Conserted efforts should be focused on water quality, water storage, hand washing with soap and community development to reduce poverty at household level in order to reduce the problem of diarrhoea in Mtendere.