Hygiene behaviour and hospitalized severe childhood diarrhoea: a case-control study
Baltazar, J.C.; Tiglao, T.V.; Tempongko, S.B.
Bulletin of the World Health Organization 71(3-4): 323-328
1993
ISSN/ISBN: 0042-9686 PMID: 8324851 Document Number: 328191
Between April and October, 1989, professors from the College of Public Health at the University of the Philippines in Manila compared data on 356 5-year-old children living in Manila, who had been admitted to a government hospital with diarrhea of 7 days duration, with data on 357 age and neighborhood matched controls to study the relationship between personal and domestic hygiene behavior and hospitalized severe childhood diarrhea. To address selection bias, the researchers chose controls who could potentially use the hospital services. All the children were from low-income families. As standards of hygiene for overall cleanliness and kitchen hygiene fell, the risk of severe diarrhea increased. Specifically, children in the group with a middle score in overall cleanliness acquired severe diarrhea at 2 times the rate as those with a low score (i.e. better hygienic conditions). Those in the high score group acquired it at 3.9 times the rate as those in the low score group. For kitchen hygiene, the odds ratios were 2.7 and 5.3, respectively. Living conditions did not influence the rate of diarrhea. Living conditions included inside and outside sanitary conditions, number of rooms, and presence or lack of a dining table. These findings suggested that effective health education programs aimed to change hygiene behavior could prevent severe diarrhea. Therefore, public health programs should develop suitable interventions for the education of mothers and of the general public.