Association between microbial water quality, sanitation and hygiene practices and childhood diarrhea in Kersa and Omo Nada districts of Jimma Zone, Ethiopia

INTRODUCTION: Diarrhea is one of the leading causes of child morbidity and mortality in low- and middle-income countries like Ethiopia. The use of safe drinking water and improved sanitation are important practices to prevent diarrhea. However, limited research has been done to link water supply, sanitation and hygiene practices and childhood diarrhea. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing the association between microbial quality of drinking water, sanitation and hygiene practices and childhood diarrhea. METHODS: Community-based matched case-control study design was applied on 198 paired children from June to July 2019 in Kersa and Omo Nada districts of Jimma Zone, Ethiopia. Cases are children < 5 years of age with diarrhea during the two weeks before the survey. The controls are children without diarrhea during the two weeks before the survey. Twenty-five percent matched pair samples of water were taken from households of cases and controls. Data were collected using structured questionnaire by interviewing mothers/caregivers. A sample of water was collected in nonreactive borosilicate glass bottles and analyzed by the membrane filtration method to count fecal indicator bacteria. A conditional logistic regression model was used; variables with p-value less than 0.05 were considered as significantly associated with childhood diarrhea. RESULTS: A total of 396 (each case matched with control) under-five children with their mothers/caregivers were included in this study. In the analysis, variables like presence of under-five child in their home (AOR = 2.76; 95% CI: 1.33–5.71), wealth status (AOR = 5.39; 95% CI: 1.99–14.55), main sources of drinking water (AOR = 4.01; 95% CI: 1.40–11.44), hand washing practice before water collection (AOR = 4.28; 95% CI: 1.46–12.56), treating water at household level (AOR = 1.22; 95% CI: 0.48–3.09), latrine use all the times of the day and night (AOR = 0.22; 95% CI: 0.06–0.78), using pit as method of waste disposal (AOR = 4.91; 95% CI: 1.39–13.29) and use of soap for hand washing (AOR = 2.89; 95% CI: 1.35–6.15) were significantly associated with childhood diarrhea. Moreover, 30% of sampled water from cases and 26% of sampled water from controls families were free from Escherichia coli whereas all sampled water analyzed for Total coliforms were positive. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the main sources of drinking water, hand washing before water drawing from a storage container, domestic waste disposal place and use of soap for hand washing were the most important factors for the prevention of childhood diarrhea.