Diarreia aguda em crianças hospitalizadas no município de Juiz de Fora – Minas Gerais: prevalência e fatores de risco associados à gravidade da doença

Abstract

Acute diarrheic disease (ADD) is one of the main causes of childhood morbimortality and malnutrition in developing countries, second only to pneumonia. Diarrhea overall mortality of children under 5 years of age was estimated to be 1.5 million in 2009. In Brazil, diarrhea accounted for 7.2% of hospitalizations in 2008, being responsible for 2.5% of all deaths of children under 5 years of age. Knowing the prevalence and risk factors associated with need of hospitalization and severity of acute diarrhea is essential to control morbidity and mortality. These factors may be explained by a multi-causal model of the inter-relation of socioeconomic, demographic, biological and cultural variables. The importance of each factor involved varies according to the characteristics of the population studied and identify them can effectively contribute to a greater understanding of the eco-epidemiologic patterns of ADD, and for the adoption of preventive measures that help to reduce the direct and indirect costs with the disease. The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of ADD as a cause of hospitalization in patients under 6 years of age and investigate the association between demographic, epidemiological and clinical determinants and the severity of the diarrheic episodes. This is a retrospective, cross-sectional study, during the period from January-2005 through December-2008. 6,201 files from children from 0 to 6 years of age, hospitalized in two public institutions, in the municipality of Juiz de Fora – Minas Gerais, were assessed. Acute diarrhea was defined as the presence of at least three evacuations of liquid or loose stools, within 24 hours, for a maximum period of 14 days. The patients with acute diarrhea were divided in two groups, according to disease severity, severe diarrhea being considered whenever hospitalization lasted for at least four days. Epidemiologic and clinical data were assessed and compared through the application of the chi-squared test and the binomial logistic regression model. The prevalence rate for admission due to acute diarrhea was 8.4%. The factors significantly associated with the severity of the diarrheic episode were: age under 6 months (n = 126, p = 0.01, OR = 2.762); disease onset during fall (n = 197, p = 0.033, OR = 1.742), presence of fever (n = 333, p = 0.017, OR = 1.715) and antibiotic use during hospitalization (n = 267, p = 0.000, OR = 3.872). In this study, diarrhea is the third most common cause of hospitalization among children under 6 years of age in Juiz de Fora. Young age (under or equal to 6 months), fever, antibiotic use during hospitalization and disease

onset during fall are risk factors associated with longer hospital stay.