An Assessment on WASH Interventions and other Risk Factors of Diarrhoea among Under Five Children in Some Rural Parts of Zambia where Survive to Thrive Project Operates

Background: In developing countries like Zambia, diarrhoea in the under-five children is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality. Many efforts and interventions have been put in place by different stakeholders in the quest to lower the prevalence of diarrhoea. Despite all these efforts, diarrhea is still the major cause of morbidity and mortality due to many factors which may include; limited access to clean water, poor sanitation and hygiene practices in many different homes especially in rural communities. The main objective for this study was to identify the WASH and other related factors associated with diarrhoea in the under-five children in some parts of rural communities of Zambia. Methods: This study conducted a cross-sectional study among 840 women of child bearing age and 827 children under the age of five years who were sampled from households surrounding the Supervisory Enumeration Areas (SEAs) that were within the catchment radius of the 39 health facilities under World Vision Zambia where Survive to Thrive (S2T) Project operates. A structured questionnaire was used to collect sociodemographic, WASH, nutrition and hygiene data using KOBO platform and the data was analysed using STATA Version 15 where the statistical significance was considered if p < 0.05. Descriptive analysis was used to estimate the prevalence of diarrhea. Additionally, univariate and multivariate logistic regression were conducted to estimate the association of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene and other related factors to diarrhoea among the under-five children. Results: From the 827 under-five children who participated in this survey, 25% (n=207) experienced diarrhoea in the previous two weeks prior to the survey with Makungwa in Eastern province recording the highest number of cases (n=90) out of a total of 240 participants. On the other hand, Lunga in North Western province recorded the lowest number of cases (n=17) out of a total of 96 participants. The inferential statis