An overview of diarrhea among infants and under-five in Punjab-Pakistan
Saher Jabeen1, Unnati Rani Saha2, C F A van Wesenbeeck3
1Ph.D. Student in Economics at Institute of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.
Insights
Maternal education and improved water sources significantly reduce childhood diarrhea in Pakistan. Interventions targeting mothers and infants are key to lowering child mortality rates.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Health
- Public Health
- Epidemiology
Background:
- Diarrhea is a leading cause of mortality in children under five globally and a major challenge for Pakistan's Sustainable Development Goals.
- Pakistan faces significant hurdles in reducing infant mortality, with diarrhea being a primary contributor.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate household, parental, environmental, and child-specific factors contributing to diarrheal diseases in children aged 0-59 months in Punjab, Pakistan.
- To identify key determinants of childhood diarrhea to inform public health interventions.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from 38,405 households from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2017-18.
- Employed comprehensive descriptive statistics, including cross-tabulations and logistic regression for detailed analysis.
Main Results:
- Infants are more susceptible to diarrhea than older children.
- Maternal education was a significant factor in reducing diarrhea incidence.
- Child, mother, and environment-specific factors all influence diarrhea probability.
Conclusions:
- Improving drinking water sources (tap, bottled) and sanitation facilities (flush toilets) can decrease diarrhea occurrence, particularly in low-income households.
- Birth order impacts diarrhea risk, with firstborns having a lower probability.
- Targeted interventions for infants and mothers are crucial for reducing child mortality in Pakistan.
Background:
Diarrhea, pneumonia, malnutrition, tuberculosis, measles, and fever are the leading causes of mortality in children under five-years of age (0-59 months), whereas diarrhea alone is the world's second-biggest cause of mortality in this population. This study is particularly important for Pakistan as it focuses on one of the main causes of infant mortality, diarrhea, which is a major challenge for Pakistan to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals to reduce infant mortality to 12/1000 live births by 2030.
Aim:
This study was planned to investigate the various household, parental, environmental, and child-related factors causing diarrheal diseases in children aged 0-59 months in Punjab Pakistan.
Methods:
The study used the data of 38,405 households from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2017-18, directed by the Punjab Bureau of Statistics. Comprehensive descriptive statistics, i.e., cross-tabulations and logistic regression were used for the detailed analysis.
Findings:
The results showed that infants are more probable to get diarrhea than older children. A wide range of influences were found to affect the probability of a child getting diarrhea, including child-specific, mother-specific and environment-specific ones. One prominent finding was that, at the mother level, the education of the mother played a significant role in reducing diarrhea among children under five-years of age (0-59 months).
Discussion:
The results of the study contribute to the literature by highlighting that it is an interplay of factors that result in diarrhea. Hence, improving the source of drinking water, e.g., tap water and bottled water, can decrease the occurrence of diarrhea, especially in poor households. It was also revealed that households with a toilet facility of flush have less probability of their children being diagnosed with diarrhea than toilet facilities in open drains and fields. On the child level, results suggested that birth order matters as well, with the firstborn child having a lower probability of contracting diarrhea than siblings born after.
Application To Practice:
Interventions targeting infants and mothers of infants aimed at reducing diarrhea are expected to be very effective to reduce child mortality, one of the main child health challenges faced by Pakistan.
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