Prevalence of diarrhoea and related risk factors among children aged under 5 years in Sana'a, Yemen

Background: Diarrhoeal disease is one of the most common problems affecting children across the world. This study assessed the prevalence of diarrhoea and related risk factors among children aged <5 years. Methods and Material: A cross-sectional study was conducted over 8 months at Sam Specialized Paediatric Centre and Al-Mamoon Diagnostic Medical Centre, Yemen, involving 1570 children aged <5 years with diarrhoea. Detailed data regarding age, sex, diarrhoeal episodes, family size, education level of mother or female caregiver, breastfeeding and weight were collected. Results: Of 5400 patients seen for different causes, 1570 patients were children aged <5 years presenting with diarrhoea, giving a prevalence of 29.07%. A total of 850 children were boys and 720 were girls, with ages ranging from 6 to 60 months. There were 1325 children aged <12 months, 160 aged 1–2 years and 85 aged 3–5 years. There were 700 (44.59%) children from small families and 870 (55.41%) from large families. A total of 922 (58.73%) children were malnourished and 648 (41.27%) were not. There were 1125 (71.66%) children whose mothers or female caregivers had no or low-level formal education and 445 (28.34%) whose mothers or female caregivers had secondary or high-level education. A total of 651 (41.46%) children were breastfed, 735 (46.82%) were mixed fed and 184 (11.72%) were bottle-fed. Conclusion: The prevalence of diarrhoea in children was high; it was highest in those who were aged <12 months, from a large family, malnourished and not exclusively breastfed, and in those whose mother or female caregiver had no or low-level education. It is important to encourage family planning, a balanced diet, exclusive breastfeeding and maternal education, and to strengthen health intervention programmes, in order to reduce the incidence of diarrhoea.