Prevalence of diarrhoea and child care practices among under-five children in tea gardens of Jorhat district, Assam

ABSTRACT

Background: Globally diarrhoea remains the second leading cause of mortality among children of below five years age. Objective was to find out the prevalence of diarrhoea and child care practices associated with diarrhoea in under five children of tea garden workers of Jorhat district, Assam. Methods: A community based cross sectional study was conducted among the under five children of selected tea gardens of Jorhat district of Assam, India from July 2017 to June 2018. Results: Prevalence of diarrhoea among the study participants in last 2 weeks was found to be 26.4%. Out of 315 study participants, 24.1% belonged to the age group of 12-24 months, 55.2% were males. Exclusive breast feeding was recorded in 95.9% of the children. Prevalence of diarrhoea was less among exclusively breast fed children 25.5% as compared to not exclusively breastfed 46.1%. Health advice during diarrhea was sought by 97.8% of the respondents. Available records showed almost all of the children 99.3% got vaccinated with measles vaccine and contrary to this majority 64.4% study participants had not received Rota virus vaccination. Conclusions: Diarrhoea is still a significant public health problem among fewer than five children of tea garden workers with low Rota virus vaccine coverage. Our study findings recommends for the awareness building among the tea garden dwellers in regard to hand hygiene, timely initiation of complementary feeding, importance of vaccinating children with Rota virus vaccine as a part of containment programme.