A study on clinical profile, personal and socio-economic risk factors in acute diarrheal disease in children

Background: Diarrhea is the 3rd leading cause of under-5 child mortality worldwide. The main intervention in the management of diarrhea includes oral rehydration and nutritional management. This study aims at studying the clinical profile of acute diarrheal disease and to determine the risk factors associated in causing diarrhea. Methods: A hospital based descriptive study was conducted involving 150 children aged between 6 months - 10 years, presenting with acute watery diarrhea to identify the clinical profile of acute diarrhea and the various risk factors in causing diarrhea which includes personal risk factors and socioeconomic risk factors are studied. Children with other systemic infections, immunosuppression and other severe systemic illnesses were excluded from the study. Results: Majority of children are in the study belong to the age group of 6 months to 1 year and 6-10 years. The presenting symptoms in the study are loose stools in 100%, fever in 59%, vomiting in 21% and abdominal pain in 15%. The personal risk factors including, native treatment, antibiotic intake, outside food intake, bottle feeding, bad child rearing practices in infants and socioeconomic risk factors including annual income, number of family members, drinking water and locality were identified as risk factors in causing diarrhea. Conclusions: This present study confirms that the majority of the children presented with complaints of fever along with loose stools and factors such as outside food intake, dwelling in pukka houses, consumption of unsafe drinking water was associated with increased risk.