Lactating Mothers’ Perception Toward Diarrheal Disease in Bench-Maji Zone, Southwest Ethiopia: Mixed study design

INTRODUCTION: Acute diarrheal diseases are the leading cause of preventable death, especially among children under-five in developing countries. Worldwide and nationwide diarrheal disease is the second leading cause of death in under-five year children. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess perception of lactating mothers' toward diarrheal disease in Mizan-Aman District, South-West Ethiopia. METHODS: Community based cross-sectional quantitative study supplemented by qualitative study was employed. A total of 383 selected households with the lactating mothers were involved in the study. Data was collected through face-to-face interview technique by trained data collectors. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 16. Multiple logistic regressions analysis was used to identify the independent predictors. Odds ratio, with 95% confidence level and P < 0.05 were used to determine statistically significant association. RESULTS: The majority of the respondents had primary education (44.4%) and from rural area (52.2%). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the residence area [AOR = 4.79, CI (1.33,7.78), P<0.003], educational status [AOR = 0.72, CI (0.55,1.29), P<0.045], Wealth index [AOR = 8.9, CI (0.99,17.45), P<0.001], knowledge [AOR = 2.34, CI (1.2-4.3) P<0.023]. Perceived susceptibility [AOR = 0.44, CI (0.33,11.33), P<0.001] and perceived severity of their child towards diarrheal disease [AOR= 0.24, CI (1.23,7.99), P<0.033] had significant associations with the perception of the diarrheal diseases among lactating mothers. CONCLUSION: Lactating mothers' perceptions toward their children of getting diarrheal disease and danger of the disease with primary education and above were better protected than mothers with no education. Thus, implementing effective information educational communication (IEC) programs that emphasize on the benefit of complying with nationally recommended practice to prevent diarrheal disease is important to reduce the risk.