Department of Public Health, Mizan Tepi University, Mizan Teferi, Ethiopia.
Water and Public Health, Ethiopian Institute of Water Resources, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Front Public Health. 2024 May 28;12:1379232. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1379232. eCollection 2024.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a virus that occurred in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and has spread to several countries. Although interventions in water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) for COVID-19 are likely a pre-existing response to childhood diarrhea, evidence of the effects of COVID-19 preventative strategies on childhood diarrhea has been lacking. This study aimed to assess the implications of COVID-19 prevention for the occurrence of childhood diarrhea in rural communities of Ethiopia.
A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from 10 May 2020 to 30 July 2020 involving selected households in the Semen Bench district, Bench Sheko zone, southwestern Ethiopia. A single population proportion formula was used to obtain a total of 768 sample sizes. Data were collected from selected households using a simple random sampling technique. Epidata 3.1 was used to enter the data and then exported to Stata 14 for analysis. Descriptive statistics along with binary and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors of COVID-19 knowledge and practices related to childhood diarrhea. The chi-squared test was used to check the association between COVID-19 prevention and childhood diarrhea reduction.
A total of 720 (93.75%) households participated in the study to achieve the study objectives. Approximately 55% of the participants had a good understanding of COVID-19 prevention, while only 48.5% had good COVID-19 prevention practices. The prevalence of childhood diarrhea was 19.3% which was more common among households with poor practices of COVID-19 prevention. The respondents with poor COVID-19 prevention knowledge were 42% (AOR = 0.58, 95% CI: 0.398, 0.847, = 0.005) less likely to develop childhood diarrhea than those who had good COVID-19 prevention knowledge. Households with poor practices for COVID-19 prevention were 75.1% more likely to develop childhood diarrhea than those who had good preventive practices for COVID-19 prevention (AOR = 1.751, 95% CI: 1.193, 2.571, = 0.004). The lower risk of childhood diarrhea is significantly related to good COVID-19 prevention practices. However, households with no formal education and a lack of WASH facilities have a higher likelihood of having childhood diarrhea in the household.
COVID-19 preventative strategies help reduce the prevalence of diarrhea in children. More research using prospective study designs and advanced statistical models is needed to better understand the implication of COVID-19 preventative efforts in reducing childhood diarrhea.
冠状病毒（COVID-19）是一种于 2019 年在中国武汉出现的病毒，并已传播到多个国家。尽管针对 COVID-19 的水、环境卫生和个人卫生（WASH）干预措施可能是针对儿童腹泻的现有应对措施，但缺乏 COVID-19 预防策略对儿童腹泻影响的证据。本研究旨在评估 COVID-19 预防对埃塞俄比亚农村社区儿童腹泻发生的影响。
这是一项 2020 年 5 月 10 日至 7 月 30 日在埃塞俄比亚西南部本切科地区森门本奇区选定家庭中进行的基于社区的横断面研究。采用单总体比例公式获得总共 768 个样本量。采用简单随机抽样技术从选定的家庭中收集数据。Epidata 3.1 用于输入数据，然后将其导出到 Stata 14 进行分析。使用描述性统计以及二项和多变量逻辑回归分析来确定与儿童腹泻相关的 COVID-19 知识和实践的因素。卡方检验用于检查 COVID-19 预防与儿童腹泻减少之间的关联。
共有 720 个（93.75%）家庭参与了研究，以实现研究目标。大约 55%的参与者对 COVID-19 预防有很好的了解，而只有 48.5%的参与者有良好的 COVID-19 预防实践。儿童腹泻的患病率为 19.3%，在预防 COVID-19 措施较差的家庭中更为常见。预防 COVID-19 知识较差的受访者发生儿童腹泻的可能性低 42%（AOR=0.58，95%CI：0.398，0.847， = 0.005）比那些对 COVID-19 预防知识了解良好的受访者。预防 COVID-19 措施较差的家庭发生儿童腹泻的可能性比预防 COVID-19 措施良好的家庭高 75.1%（AOR=1.751，95%CI：1.193，2.571， = 0.004）。儿童腹泻的风险较低与良好的 COVID-19 预防措施显著相关。然而，没有接受正规教育和缺乏 WASH 设施的家庭更有可能在家庭中出现儿童腹泻。
COVID-19 预防策略有助于降低儿童腹泻的患病率。需要更多使用前瞻性研究设计和先进统计模型的研究来更好地了解 COVID-19 预防工作对减少儿童腹泻的影响。
