Studies on diarrhea prevalence in selected communities in greater Monrovia, Liberia

Abstract

Diarrhea is an epidemic that threatens the livelihood of children less than five years in developing countries. Control and mitigation pose a severe challenge in these countries. The subjective of the study is to assess the prevalence of and factors associated with diarrhea among families in Greater Monrovia. The study recruited 257 families from three communities and geographically and randomly assigned to the two groups (A & B). Socio-demographic survey and knowledge and behavior questionnaires on diarrhea prevalence were used to collect data. Reports from the study indicate that family in Group A (93%) and Group B (83.6%) have significant knowledge associating contaminated drinking water and contaminated food with diarrhea; X2 =11.2, p = 0.001. The family behavior shows that Group A (33%) and Group B (51%) do not treat their drinking water before consumption. The findings from this study recommend an education and awareness intervention on diarrheal and related illnesses to increase family knowledge and improvement of the behavior community public health improvement process.