Ntshangase Samukelisiwe N, Ghuman Shanaz, Haffejee Firoza
Department of Community Health Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa.
Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa.
Health SA. 2022 Oct 25;27:1923. doi: 10.4102/hsag.v27i0.1923. eCollection 2022.
Diarrhoea, a leading cause of childhood morbidity and mortality, spread through contaminated food or water or from person to person, is a major cause of hospitalisation in South African children.
To determine if hygiene practices of parents or guardians and early childhood development centre (ECD) educators contributed to diarrhoea in children attending the centres.
The study was conducted at ECD centres in Mpumalanga Township of KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa.
A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at 10 ECD centres. Parents or guardians ( = 385) and educators ( = 121) answered self-administered questionnaires. Frequencies, bivariate associations and multivariate regression modelling were conducted.
The prevalence of diarrhoea in children ≤ 5 years was 67.3%. Most parents or guardians washed their hands after defecating and handling a child's faeces as well as before preparing food. Handwashing after urination was low. Washing of children's hands after these events was lower. Although all educators reported always washing the child's hands after defecating and before handling or eating food, they were less likely to wash the children's hands after urination ( = 0.003). Childhood diarrhoea was associated with the type of toilet, households with pit latrines having a higher prevalence of diarrhoea ( < 0.001). It was also associated with washing of children's hands after urination ( = 0.014), before handling or eating food ( = 0.001) and with increased number of children in the household ( = 0.001).
In this population, the high prevalence of diarrhoea is related to the number of children in a household and handwashing practices.
This study highlights the importance of handwashing practices in the prevention of diarrhoea in children.
腹泻是儿童发病和死亡的主要原因，可通过受污染的食物或水传播，也可在人与人之间传播，是南非儿童住院的主要原因。
确定父母或监护人以及幼儿发展中心（ECD）教育工作者的卫生习惯是否会导致在这些中心就读儿童的腹泻。
该研究在南非夸祖鲁-纳塔尔省姆普马兰加镇的幼儿发展中心进行。
在10个幼儿发展中心开展了一项描述性横断面研究。父母或监护人（n = 385）和教育工作者（n = 121）回答了自行填写的问卷。进行了频率分析、双变量关联分析和多变量回归建模。
5岁及以下儿童腹泻的患病率为67.3%。大多数父母或监护人在排便和处理儿童粪便后以及准备食物前会洗手。排尿后洗手的比例较低。在这些情况后给儿童洗手的比例更低。尽管所有教育工作者都报告说总是在儿童排便后以及处理或进食食物前给他们洗手，但他们在儿童排尿后洗手的可能性较小（P = 0.003）。儿童腹泻与厕所类型有关，使用坑式厕所的家庭腹泻患病率更高（P < 0.001）。它还与儿童排尿后洗手（P = 0.014）、处理或进食食物前洗手（P = 0.001）以及家庭中儿童数量增加（P = 0.001）有关。
在该人群中，腹泻的高患病率与家庭中儿童数量和洗手习惯有关。
本研究强调了洗手习惯在预防儿童腹泻方面的重要性。
