Acute Diarrhea: Risk Factors and Electrolytes Disturbances in Children of Age 2 Months to 5 Years

Objectives: Objectives of this study are to determine the risk factors in children with acute diarrhea and to determine the electrolytes disturbances in children with acute diarrhea.

Methodology: A study was conducted at Paediatric Department, PMCH Nawabshah. Total 246 patients, meeting the inclusion criteria were enrolled into the study by using non-probability consecutive sampling technique. A written informed consent was taken from attendant to include their child into the study. Children were admitted to in-patient department and serum sodium and serum potassium levels were evaluated through collection of venous blood sample. Risk factors were explored by clinical history and relevant physical examination. All of the data was recorded on pre-designed profroma. Data was entered into statistical package SPSS version 21 for statistical analysis.

Results: Total 246 children were recruited into the study out of which, 160(65%) were males and 86(35%) were females. The median age (in years) was 1.5 with IQR: 0.75 – 2.63. Majority of the children were from rural area (80.1%). The prevalence of risk factor ‘incomplete vaccination’ was high among all risk factors (98.78%). Prevalence for lack of tap water supply, use of bottle feed, lack of breast feed and use of prelacteal feed were 86.58%, 82.5%, 78.05% and 17.1% respectively. The most common electrolyte imbalance was hyponatremia (55.28%) followed by hypokalemia (43.90%), hypernatremia (13.01%) and hyperkalemia (10.16%).

Conclusion: Diarrhea impacted serum electrolytes and children developed dehydration especially hyponatremina and hypokalemia. Therefore, serum electrolytes should be closely monitored among children with diarrheal illness and timely managed with necessary interventions. The frequent risk factors of acute diarrhea were non-compliance to vaccine program, exclusive breastfeeding, and lack of potable water. The findings of current study suggest to give education to care givers so they may properly take care of their offspring. Potable water should be available and used to avoid consequences of utilizing unsafe water.