Factors associated with diarrhea among infants seeking healthcare services at Homa Bay County Referral Hospital, Kenya

Abstract

More than 90% of infant deaths in Kenya is due to conditions like pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, neonatal problems, malnutrition and HIV/AIDS, and often a combination of these conditions. Diarrhea among infants is both preventable and treatable if only mothers of these infants are educated on ways of preventing The main objective of this study is to investigate factors associated with diarrhea among infants seeking healthcare services at Homa Bay County referral hospital. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to explore the factors associated with diarrhea among infants. Results showed majority of respondents were aged between 18-25 years, resided in rural areas. Majority (95.2%) were daily laborers with 42% having household average monthly income of < Ksh.5000.On education status of the respondents,43.3% had only attained primary education. Diarrhea prevalence was more (73.3 % ) among those who were residing rural areas .In regression analysis between different variables mother/caretaker’s education also showed a great significance with prevalence of diarrhea as infants of mothers/caretakers who were unable to read had higher diarrhea prevalence (p – value 0.002)than among those who had attained college education. In conclusion, residence, type of water storage container, methods of complementary feeding, mother/caretaker education status and cleansing materials to wash the hands were the most important variables that affected the occurrence and severity of diarrhea in children.