TY - JOUR ID - TI - Risk Factors for Diarrheal Diseases in Children under the Age of Five Years in Karbala AU - Abdul Kareem Alaiwi AU - Zuhair Mahdi Al-Musawi, AU - Saad Ibrahim Al-Ghabban PY - 2006 VL - 1 no. 1 IS - SP - 50 EP - 62 JO - Karbala Journal of Medicine مجلة كربلاء الطبية SN - 19905483 29580889 AB - To identify the possible risk factors for diarrheal problems , a prospective survey done for 202children , under 5 years old , admitted to Karbala Hospital for Children in Karbala governorate inIraq due to diarrheal problems .Variable personal and demographic informations were taken from the mothers or caregivers .Breastfeeding predominated significantly in both rural (71.4 %) and urban (63.44 %) areas(P.<0.0001)Underweight children were mostly bottle feeded (68.4 %) . (X2 =7.08, P. <0.029) Occurrence ofdiarrheal diseases was inversely proportional to maternal education level.One-third of children in the study had prior recent diarrheal illness.Ninety four percent of children received antibiotics for the diarrheal illness prior to admission to thehospital.There was an overall negligence of the use of oral rehydration solution (ORS.)The majority of bottle feeder mothers did not apply the proper method of bottle feeding preparation.Eighty five percent of patients using pacifier represents all the bottle-fed infants, and (65.1 %) ofurban breastfed infants and (90 %) of rural breastfed infants.In conclusion, malnutrition, poor environmental feeding hygiene, lower maternal education, recentdiarrheal illness increase the liability for diarrheal problems .It was also concluded that :Underweight was less in breastfeeding babies.ORT was underused, while antibiotics were overused in this sample of children.

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