Influence of socio-demographic factors on the diarrheal disease management approaches taken by two distinct communities of Bangladesh

Diarrhea is one of the major determinants of childhood mortality in the world. This study was aimed to provide a demographically representative description on the influence of socio-demographic factors e.g. caretakers' education, occupation, family income and living standard on the diarrheal disease management approaches taken by the slum dwellers and middle class families of Bangladesh. We have visited 90 middle class families and 120 slum dwellers to obtain information. Children of slum dwellers are more likely to be affected by diarrhea. In both classes, significantly more females were affected by diarrhea than males. This scenario is even more prominent among slum dwellers, where 1.5 times more females were affected by diarrhea than their male counterparts. As a primary approach to manage diarrhea, 63.8% caretakers chose Oral rehydration solution (ORS) whereas 31.5% preferred the salt-molasses fluid. All caretakers knew the use of ORS and antibiotics as a preventive measure against diarrhea. However, this scenario dramatically turned when the caretakers were asked whether they know how to prepare ORS. All the caretakers (100%) in middle class families knew how to prepare ORS in contrast to only 25% caretakers among the slum dwellers. Private sectors specially pharmacies were often the first line of health care in both of these classes during diarrhea. But this is most prevalent among the middle class families (50%), compared to the slum dwellers (35%). Finally, it is apparent that the education, family income, living standard and good food help the middle class families to fight diarrhea more efficiently and scientifically than the slum dwellers.