Abstract
Acute diarrhoea is one of the primary causes of childhood mortality in underdeveloped countries. To characterize acute diarrhoea in infants < 2 years of age from a marginal area of Montevideo and to identify risk factors, a weekly household follow up was carried out in December/88-January/89. Basic information: family structure, cultural and socio-economic status were collected in a precodified form. The occurrence and clinical aspects of diarrhoea and other illnesses were recorded, along with the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAPs) related as to how mothers managed their children with diarrhoea. Of the 276 children who finished the follow-up, 147 (53%) had at least one episode of diarrhoea. Variables with significant differences were: in the affected group, family break up was more frequent, mothers had less deliveries and a higher number were under 25y, few children had been breast-fed during their first 3 months of life. The group that developed diarrhoea had also more respiratory symptoms throughout the survey and at the begining of the study, maternal KAPs showed that fewer mothers were cooking for their family and keeping milk in the refrigerator. Family history of recurrent diarrhoea and diarrhoea in an adult 2 weeks before the follow-up was also more frequent. Only a small proportion of these mothers believed that lengthy episodes of diarrhoea were severe; and most lacked confidence in the physicians' ability to identify the illnesses of their children. These information on the risk factors have to be taken into account in future interventions on preventive practices towards the modification of diarrhoea morbidity in similar communities.
Article PDF
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Algorta, C., Montano, A., Pérez, C. et al. COMMUNITY ACUTE DIARRHOEA: RISK FACTORS. Pediatr Res 32, 740 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199212000-00039
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-199212000-00039