अमूर्त

Clinical profile of children under 5 years presenting with acute diarrhea in coastal Karnataka.

Avinash Singraiah, Pavan Hegde

Background and objectives: Acute diarrhea is the 3rd leading cause of under-five mortality in India after pneumonia and prematurity. Acute diarrhea can be either infectious or non infectious. There are a lot of risk factors associated with infectious diarrhea and also resulting complications majorly dehydration. Our aim was to study the clinical profile of under five children presenting with diarrhea.

Materials and methods: This was a descriptive observational study done in 120 children meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria, who were admitted in the pediatric ward in a tertiary care hospital in south Karnataka. After obtaining an informed consent, a detailed clinical examination was performed on children meeting the inclusion criteria and the data was entered to the preformatted excel sheet.

Results: 120 children fulfilling criteria were recruited for the study. 41% of study subjects were less than 3years. Male constituted for 62%. Malnourished children in the study group were 43%. Dehydration was seen in 28 children. 4 children presented with dysentery. There was significant association between malnutrition and dehydration.

Conclusion: Diarrhoea occurs at a high frequency in developing countries troubling the young age children. Majority of children were under 3 years of age. Commonly associated symptoms were vomiting, fever and pain abdomen. Dehydration being the most common complication of acute diarrhoea. Malnourishment is the major risk factor for children going in for dehydration.