Attitude and practices regarding diarrhoea in rural community in Chandigarh

The present study on diarrhoea, its prevalence, practices and awareness of mothers was conducted in 120 randomly selected households in the rural area of Chandigarh during monsoons in 1996. Inspite of access to safe drinking water and latrines in 83% and 74% of the households in the village respectively, the prevalence rate of diarrhoea in 181 under five children was observed to be 23.2%. Majority (88.1%) of children had treatment for diarrhoea whereas only half (54.8%) of children were given oral rehydration solution. 86.7% of the mothers were aware of ORS but only 18.7% could tell the correct method of its preparation. A large number of respondents implicated a variety of food items responsible for diarrhoea and restricted them during the episodes.