The relationship between the family income, maternal education, maternal age, birth order, the weight of infant and the episodes of diarrhoeal diseases in the first six months of life.

ABSTRACT

Influential factors in the diarrhoeal diseases are pathological agents, host and environment. Lower socioeconomic environment is the predisposing factor to the diarrhoeal diseases. This paper is to report the family income, maternal education, maternal age, birth order, the weight of infant and the relationship of each of these factors to the episodes of diarrhoeal diseases in the first six months of life. The infants were divided into 4 groups- 1st group had no diarrhoeal, 2nd , 3rd and 4th groups had diarrhea with one, two to three and over three episodes respectively. There were no statistically significant difference noted between the groups of diarrhoeal episodes and the family income, maternal education, the weight of infants and birth order. The diarrhoeal diseases occurred more knowledge about proper care of her infant which contributed to the increased episodes of diarrhoeal disease.