Background: Diarrhea is responsible for 525,000 children under-five deaths and 1.7 billion cases globally and is the\nsecond leading cause of death among children under-five every year. It is a major public health problem in low\nincome countries like Ethiopia. The main aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of diarrhea and associated\nrisk factors among children under-five in Debre Berhan Town, Ethiopia.\nMethods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in 420 parent or caretaker/children pairs in\nDebre Berhan town between 13 and 18 April 2018. A multi-stage sampling strategy was used to select the study\nparticipants. Data were collected using pre-tested and structured questionnaires. Data were entered in Epi-info\ncomputer software version 3.5.1 and exported to SPSS Window Version-16 for analysis. Adjusted odds ratio with\n95% confidence intervals were used to assess the level of significance.\nResults: The two week prevalence of diarrhea among children under-five was 16.4% (69/351). Children aged 7â??11\nmonths (adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 4.2, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.2â??15.3), being the second-born child (AOR:\n3.9, 95%CI: 1.8â??8.5), not vaccinated against rotavirus (AOR: 10.3, 95%CI: 3.2â??91.3) and feeding children by hand\n(AOR: 2.5, 95%CI: 1.1â??6.1) were significant predictors of diarrhea.\nConclusions: This study revealed that the two weeks period prevalence of diarrhea among children under-five\nyears was 16.4%. Education programs on the importance of vaccination against rotavirus, increasing breast feeding\nfrequency with complementary food after six months and the critical points of hand washing are recommended.
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