Impact of Socio-Demographic Factors in Under-Five Children with Acute Diarrhea in Tertiary Care Hospital

Objective: To determine the impact of socio-demographic factors linked to an increased incidence of acute diarrhea among children under five years of age. Study Design: Descriptive-Cross sectional study. Settings: This study was carried out at the Pediatric emergency department of Nishtar Hospital, Multan Pakistan. Duration: Six months From August 2022 to January 2023. Methods: After obtaining Ethical approval from the Institutional review board, a self-designed questionnaire was used to obtain information from parents/caregivers of 147 participants selected through a non-probability convenient sampling technique. Data entry and analysis were done using SPSS statistics 26. Results pertaining to rates were reported as frequencies and percentages. The Chi-square test was used to measure the association, and a factor was considered to be significant if its p-value was less than or equal to 0.05. Results: In the present study, the frequency of acute diarrhea among children was 87 (59.2%). Socio-demographic factors significantly associated with acute diarrhea were joint family system (p=0.01), incomplete EPI vaccination (p=0.00), lack of exclusive breastfeeding (p=0.01), previous history of diarrhea (p=0.04), poor sewerage system (p=0.00) and quality of drinking water (p=0.00). Conclusion: The possible reasons for diarrhea seem to be multifactorial, so a high-risk approach should be commenced to mitigate the issue of the lower health status of children, and the primary aim of policies should be the reduction of social, economic, educational, and health disparities within the country.