Prevalence of diarrhoea among infants of child welfare clinics at two teaching hospitals in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed the prevalence of diarrhoea among infants of Child Welfare Clinics at two University Teaching Hospitals using a semi-structured questionnaire to collect information from mothers on socioeconomic characteristics, infant care practices and diarrhoeal experience of mothers with their infants. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science Software (SPSS version 16.0) in frequencies, percentages and Pearson correlation at 5% level of significance. The result revealed that prevalence of diarrhoea was high; however the frequency was low with the practice of exclusive breastfeeding and Pearson correlation value of 0.11. Nevertheless, there was significance association between prevalence of diarrhoea and exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) practice at P-value <0.05. There was also a moderate association between the prevalence of diarrhoea and toilet/kitchen water supply with the Pearson correlation value of 0.41 and there was positive relationship between the toilet and kitchen water supply at P-value< 0.05. The frequency of diarrhoea in the two teaching hospitals was low on both exclusively breastfed infants and those who had regular water supply in their kitchen and toilet; ensuring regular availability of potable water and developing policies that promote exclusive breastfeeding practice is essential.

Keywords: Diarrhoea, Infant, Mothers, Exclusive breastfeeding