Diarrhoeal disease morbidity, risk factors and treatments in a low socioeconomic area of Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.

A 12-month diarrhoeal disease surveillance was carried out in a sample of 351 children under 3 years of age in a low-income traditional area of Ilorin, Nigeria to determine whether sociodemographic characteristics, including age of the child, sex, parity, mother's education, occupation, mother's age and household kitchen, were associated with the incidence of acute diarrhoea. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to determine association. Results indicated that only the age of the child and the type of kitchen used by the household had a significant association with diarrhoea. Diarrhoeal incidence decreases with the child's age while households with a private kitchen had a significantly lower incidence rate than those without a kitchen. This finding emphasises the importance of good hygiene in reducing the risk of having diarrhoea. Three common treatments applied by mothers are ORS (used in 14.8% of diarrhoea days), antibiotics (54.5%) and local herbs (27.7%). The younger a child is the more likely that ORS and antibiotics will be administered during diarrhoea. About 53% of the antibiotic use was by self medication while 40% were prescribed by the clinics. The need for educational campaigns to discourage the inappropriate use of antibiotics was emphasised.