Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Diarrhea is a major contributing factor for preventable childhood morbidity and death. Despite the occurrence of diarrhea is decreasing, its effect is increasing at an alarming rate among under-5 children particularly in developing countries. The survey was aimed to assess diarrhea and associated factors among children less than 5 years (0-59 months) in Ethiopia with nationally representative data. METHODS: The data were extracted from the Ethiopian National Survey of 2016. A logistic regression model was undertaken to identify the contributing factors for childhood diarrhea. Variables with p < 0.05 were considered as independent predictors of childhood diarrhea. RESULTS: From a total of 10,641 under-5 children, 5483(51.5%) were males and most of the children (62.3%) were above 24 months. About 10.2% had diarrhea 14 days before data collection, and the majority (93.1%) were born to married mothers. Receiving no treatment or advice for fever/cough (adjusted odd ratio (AOR) = 0.170, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.139-0.208, p = 0.001), being permanent residence (AOR = 0.583, 95% CI: 0.347-0.982, p = 0.043), initiating breastfeeding after 24 h of birth (AOR = 1.553, 95% CI: 1.197-2.015, p = 0.001), and lack of prenatal care (AOR = 2.142, 95% CI: 0.624-0.875, p = 0.001) were independent predictors of diarrhea among under-5 children's in Ethiopia. CONCLUSION: The result of this survey indicated that diarrhea is a significant health challenge among under-5 children. To tackle this illness, sufficient education on child and maternal health has to be provided for mothers focusing on predictive factors.