Abstract

Introduction: Despite the fact the prevalence of diarrhea has decreased over time, it is still the second most common cause of mortality and morbidity in children under the age of five worldwide, behind pneumonia, and is primarily brought on by contaminated food and water sources. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the Spatio-temporal pattern and to identify the factors that contribute to Ethiopian childhood diarrhea disease.
Methods: In this study, secondary data from four Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS) from 2000 to 2016 were used. To determine the spatial dependence of diarrhea cases, Moran's I was utilized. The factors of diarrhea among children under the age of five in Ethiopia were evaluated at the zonal level using the spatial models.
Results: According to this study, there was a spatial clustering of diarrhea in Ethiopia among children under the age of five (Moran's I; p-value < 0.05). The spatial regression model showed that the parameter coefficients of children born at home (e^θ= 1.355, 95% CI: (1.052, 1.544), p-value < 0.001), children with low birth weight (e^θ=1.18, 95% CI: (1.017, 1.691), p-value <0.05) and households who had had unimproved source of drinking water (e^θ= 0.8568, 95% CI: (0.671, 1.086), p-value < 0.01) were significant factors for the mean number of childhood diarrhea cases at zonal level.
Conclusions: This study found that, there was temporal variations in childhood diarrhea across the country's zones, with a downward trend at the national level. In the Assosa, Hundene, and Dire Diwa zones, childhood diarrhea was still predominating. The prevalence of home births and low birth weight children are important contributors to the increasing prevalence of childhood diarrhea. Therefore, to reduce the high prevalence of childhood diarrhea in Ethiopia's at high-risk zones, integrated child health intervention programs and awareness about the risk of using unimproved source of drinking water were required.