Maternal Education and Acute Diarrhea Among Children Aged 2-5 Years In Pakistan: Cross Sectional Study

Abstract

Childhood diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of death globally. All over the world, children below five years of age experience, on average, 3.2 episodes of diarrhea per year. Objectives: To explore an association of maternal education with childhood diarrhea in Pakistan. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Methodology: This study was conducted from Aug 2016 to Jan 2017 in Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Peshawar following approval from ethical review board. Total children under study were 363 aged 2 to 5 years, amid whom 121 were acute diarrhea cases and 242 were healthy controls leading to cases control ratio as 1:2. Data collection was done through semi structured questionnaire asked from mothers. Statistical analysis: Data was analyzed by SPSS software, version 22. To compare the association of maternal education with acute diarrhea, chi square test was applied at 5% level of significance. Statistical significance was taken at p value <0.05. Results: In present study, there was significant association between formal education of mothers and acute diarrhea with a highly statistically significant association (p < 0.001) observed showing increased proportion of childhood diarrhea, with increasing levels of education in mothers. Conclusion: We concluded that a significant increase in childhood diarrhea with higher levels of maternal education refutes the commonly observed finding. We need to further probe the underlying causes to minimize this high observed morbidity. Key Words: Maternal Education, Child Health and Safety and Acute Childhood Diarrhea