Vol.4, No.1, 17-21 (2014) Open Journal of Preventive Medicine http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojpm.2014.41004 Copyright © 2014 SciRes. OPEN ACCESS Prevalence of diarrhoea and its associated factors in children under five years of age in Baghdad, Iraq Harith Alaa 1* , Shamsul Azhar Shah 2 , Abdul Rashid Khan 3 1 Public Health Medicine Department, Penang Medical College, Pulau Penang, Malaysia; * Corresponding Author: harith@pmc.edu.my 2 Epidemiology and Statistics, Department of Community Health, UKM Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 3 Epidemiology and Public Health, Department of Community Health Medicine, Penang Medical College, Pulau Penang, Malaysia Received 6 November 2013; revised 7 December 2013; accepted 31 December 2013 Copyright © 2014 Harith Alaa et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In accor- dance of the Creative Commons Attribution License all Copyrights © 2014 are reserved for SCIRP and the owner of the intellectual property Harith Alaa et al. All Copyright © 2014 are guarded by law and by SCIRP as a guardian. ABSTRACT Introduction: Diarrhoeal disease is one of the principal causes of morbidity and mortality among children in developing countries. Poor nutrition leads to ill health and it contributes to further deterioration in nutritional status. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Bagh- dad, Iraq. The study was conducted in three pa- ediatric hospitals and from paediatric depart- ments in other three general hospitals in Bagh- dad, Iraq. Sample was drawn conveniently, three paediatric hospitals from Baghdad hospital list. 150 respondents were chosen from these pae- diatric hospitals and 50 respondents were cho- sen from the paediatric departments in three general hospitals. Results: males had twice the risk of diarrhoea (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.1; 3.5). The risk of diarrhoea was 3 times higher among chil- dren with mothers who had lower level of edu- cation (OR 3.5 95% CI 1.3; 10.1), 5 times higher with unemployed mothers (OR 4.7 95% CI 2.1; 10.4) and 2 times higher with mothers who had poor nutritional knowledge (OR 2.5 95% CI 1.4; 4.9). The risk of diarrhoea was three times higher among children with fathers who had lower level of education (OR 3.3 95% CI 1.7; 6.6). The bino- mial logistics regression, Mothers’ level of edu- cation and employment status, fathers’ level of education, mothers’ nutritional knowledge were used as possible independent associated fac- tors. Conclusion: Children in Baghdad remain at risk of frequent diarrhoea episodes and other complications which might affect their develop- ment status. It is becoming increasingly impor- tant to focus on improving the underlying fac- tors by increasing the mother nutritional know- ledge through special antenatal classes, and im- proving family economic status. KEYWORDS Diarrhoea; Children; Iraq 1. INTRODUCTION Iraq is a developing country that has seen the horrors of wars and sanctions for over two decades. As in all wars, the most susceptible group is children, especially on their health. Because of the lack of proper nutrition, sanitation and immunization, there is a serious wide- spread of diarrhoea. Diarrhoea can be clinically divided into acute watery diarrhoea which lasts several hours or days, acute bloody diarrhoea, and persistent diarrhoea which lasts 14 days or longer. Severe diarrhoea leads to fluid loss, and may be life-threatening, particularly in young children who are malnourished or have impaired immunity. Diarrhoeal disease is one of the principal cau- ses of morbidity and mortality among children in devel- oping countries [1]. It is the second leading cause of death in children under five years old and is responsible for killing 1.5 million children every year. Diarrhoea often leads to stunting in children due to its association with poor nutrient absorption and appetite loss. The risk of stunting in young children has been shown to increase signi ficantly with each episode of d i- arrhoea [2]. Diarrhoea control, particularly in the first six months of life, can help reduce the prevalence of stunting among children [3]. According to Yip [4], diarrhoea affects children youn-