Determinants of diarrheal disease among under five Children in Robe Hospital, Bale Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia: Case-control study

Background: In African countries including Ethiopia, each child on average hurts from five episodes of diarrhea per year. Therefore, this paper focuses on determinants of diarrheal diseases among under five children in Robe Hospital, South East Ethiopia from May-August, 2018. Methods: Health Facility based unmatched case-control study design was conducted in Robe Hospital. Interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Epi-Info version 7 and SPSS version 20 were used for data entry and analysis respectively. The proportion of case and control was assumed to 1:2 and by using the Epi Info Version 7 software the sample size was 594 (198 cases and 396 controls). Factors associated with diarrheal disease were analyzed using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression. In bivariate logistic regression, p-value of <= 0.25 was considered for enrolling variables to multiple logistic regression. Adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence interval was calculated using a logistic regression model to controlled confounding effect and to determined predictors of the outcome. P-value < 0.05 was considered as cutoff point for statistically significance variables. Results: Multivariate logistic regression showed that presence of improved latrine [AOR: 0.35 95% CI: (0.21, 0.58)], mother/caretaker hand washing at critical time [AOR: 0.50 95% CI: (0.26, 0.95)], maternal history of diarrhea [AOR: 3.02 95% CI: (1.30, 7.02)] and age of child being 12-23 months [AOR: 4.37 (2.22, 8.62)] were found to be significant factors for under five Conclusions: The results of the study showed that factors; namely age of children, presence of improved latrine, mother history of diarrhea in the past two weeks and hand washing at critical time were significantly associated with diarrhea among children less than five years of age. Overall, educating mothers focusing on sustained behavioral changes in the use of improved latrine and hand washing at critical time is an important intervention for the prevention and control of diarrhea among children.