Abstract

Child hood diarrhea has continued as a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in Ethiopia. In conjunction with implementing control programs, an up to-date comprehensive  information on the magnitude and contributing factors among child hood diarrhea is  needed to develop and design effective interventions at the district level. A community based cross sectional study was carried out among 717 mothers/care givers of under five children in four districts of West Guji Zone from July 21, 2018 up to August 21, 2018. The study participants were selected using systematic random sampling techniques. The collected data were entered into Epi-data version 3.5.4 and exported to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies with percentages were computed. AOR with 95% C.I was employed to test significant association. A total of 717 children participated in this study; of which 262(36.5%) suffered acute diarrhea within two-week prevalence. Factors significantly associated with childhood diarrhea were maternal educational status [AOR=3.75, 95% CI:(1.07,13.22)], age of index child [AOR=2.72; 95% CI(1.18, 6.27)], number of under five children [AOR= 1.527; 95% CI: (1.04, 2.24)], exclusive breast feeding practice [AOR = 2.45; 95% CI:(1.61,3.73)], time supplementary feeding initiated [AOR=2.16; 95% CI(1.22,.3.83)], waste disposal method [AOR = 1.92; 95% CI:(1.26,2.94)] and  pneumococcal vaccination [AOR= 6.72; 95% CI(1.20,.37.65)], Vitamin A  supplementation  [AOR= 1.66 ;95 % CI(1.04,.2.68)]. More than one-third, 262 (36.5%, 95 CI: 33.13%, 39.87%) of the children reported childhood diarrhea which refers it is a major public health problem in the district. This finding point  application of  integrative intervention strategies such  as  building toilet, safe  water access, effective health education  related to appropriate child  feeding practices.

Key words: Child health, diarrhea, pre-school children.