Background

Diarrhoea is the second leading cause of death worldwide in children under five years of age. Simple targeted interventionscan control the major proportion of these episodes. However, if their awareness amongst the mothers is low, local success of these measures will be ineffective.

Objective

To determine the association of diarrhea in children 2–60 months of age with socio–demographic status of the mothers.

Design

A hospital–based cross–sectional study was conducted in the Department of Pediatrics, Kamla Nehru Hospital, Bhopal using a pre–tested questionnaire and face–to–face interviews with the mothers of the study group.

Results

Diarrhea was seen more prevalent in upper lower (78.9%) and lower middle (21.1%) class patients. 51.7% families resided in kuccha houses. 79.2% mothers were 20–30 year old, 51.4% were illiterate and 27.2% were daily wage labourers.

Conclusions

Low socio–demographic status of the mothers lowers their awareness regarding diarrhoeal preventionand negatively impacts children‘s health in the given rural setting,