Exploring the association between childhood diarrhea and meteorological factors in Southwestern Ethiopia

Childhood diarrhea has been one of the major public health concerns in countries that have limited resources like Ethiopia. Understanding the association between childhood diarrhea and meteorological factors would contribute to safeguard children from adverse health effects through early warning mechanisms. Thus, this study aimed at exploring the association between childhood diarrhea and meteorological factors to enable reducing health risks. A retrospective study design was used to explore the association between meteorological factors and childhood diarrhea in southwestern Ethiopia from 2010 to 2017. Mann Kendall trend test and Spearman's correlation were computed to test the association of childhood diarrhea and meteorological factors. The space-time permutation model was used to identify the risky periods, seasons with most likely clusters, and high childhood diarrhea. Similarly, a negative binomial regression model was fitted to determine the predictability of meteorological factors for childhood diarrhea. The highest childhood diarrhea morbidity was 92.60 per 1000 per under five children. The risk of childhood diarrhea increased by 16.66% (RR: 1.1666; 95% CI: 1.164-1.168) per increase in 1 °C temperature. Furthermore, rainfall was found to be a significant risk factor of childhood diarrhea, with 0.16% (RR: 1.00167; 95% CI: 1.001306-1.001928) per 1 mm increase in rainfall. The temperature was positively correlated with the occurrence of childhood diarrhea. But the association with rainfall showed spatial variability. The space-time permutation model revealed that dry season was found to be a high-risk period with excess childhood diarrhea. The results showed that the observed association between meteorological factors and childhood diarrhea could be used as evidence for early warning systems for the prevention of childhood diarrhea.