Household and community variations and nested risk factors for diarrhoea prevalence in southern Malawi: A binary logistic multi-level analysis

This paper examines household and community-level influences on diarrhoeal prevalence in southern Malawi. A Bayesian multi-level modelling technique is used in the estimation of hierarchically built data from a survey of individuals nested within households nested within communities. Households have strong unobserved influence on diarrhoeal illness (sigma(2)(u) = 4.476; 95% CI: 2.081, 6.871). A joint Wald test of significance shows that an individual's age [chi(2)(4) = 55.921, p = 0.000] and school [chi(2)(2) = 18.203, p = 0.000] have strong influence on an individual's diarrhoeal prevalence. An individual's history of malarial-like illness also has a strong positive relationship with diarrhoeal prevalence [beta = 0.606, p = 0.000]. Household factors that influence diarrhoea include employment status of head of household [beta = -0.619, p < 0.021], maternal age [beta = -0.013, p < 0.003], and size of household [beta = -0.669, p = 0.000]. The positive relationship between diarrhoea and malaria-like episodes highlights common risk factors hence the need for common approaches to combat the diseases. Significant household effects underline the importance of household considerations in policy issues.