ArticleBMC public health2021
Diarrhoeal diseases in Soweto, South Africa, 2020: a cross-sectional community survey.
Article in BMC public health, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Incidence of diarrhoeal disease among children aged less than five years in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.Journal of global health · 2025Pooled it
- Water-Energy-Food Security and Health in South Africa: A Scoping Review.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- Cohort Profile: The Soweto and Thembelihle Health and Demographic Surveillance System (SaT-HDSS).International journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Communicable Disease Surveillance in South Africa and LMICs: A Systematic Review of Systems, Challenges, and Integration with Environmental Health.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2025Review
- The epidemiology of acute gastrointestinal illness in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Tanzania: a population survey.Epidemiology and infection · 2025Article
- Healthcare Seeking Behavior and Disease Perception Toward Cholera and Acute Diarrhea Among Populations Living in Cholera High-Priority Hotspots in Shashemene, Ethiopia.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2024Article
- Exploration of Infant Food Microbial Composition from Formal and Informal Settings Using Viable Counts and 16S rRNA Gene Amplicon Sequencing in Johannesburg, South Africa.Foods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Social and Environmental Determinants of Diarrheal Diseases among Children under Five Years in Epworth Township, Harare.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Identifying gaps in hand hygiene practice to support tailored target audience messaging in Soweto: A cross-sectional community survey.Southern African journal of infectious diseases · 2022Article
- A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Assessment of Caregivers' Knowledge and Practices Regarding the Prevention and Management of Diarrhea among Children under the Age of Five in Thulamela B Clinics, South Africa.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- "Our Home Is a Muddy Structure": Perceptions of Housing and Health Risks Among Older Adults in Contrasting Neighborhoods in Ghana.Frontiers in public health · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIn South Africa, there are limited data on the burden of diarrhoea at a community level, specifically in older children and adults. This community survey estimated rates of and factors associated with diarrhoea across all ages and determined the proportion of cases presenting to healthcare facilities.
methodsHouseholds were enrolled from an existing urban health and demographic surveillance site. A household representative was interviewed to determine associated factors and occurrence of diarrhoea in the household, for all household members, in the past 2 weeks (including symptoms and health seeking behaviour). Diarrhoeal rate of any severity was calculated for < 5 years, 5-15 years and > 15 years age groups. Factors associated with diarrhoea and health seeking behaviour were investigated using binomial logistic regression.
resultsDiarrhoeal rate among respondents (2.5 episodes/person-year (95% CI, 1.8-3.5)) was significantly higher than for other household members (1.0 episodes/person-year (95% CI, 0.8-1.4); IRR = 2.4 (95% CI, 1.5-3.7) p < 0.001). Diarrhoeal rates were similar between age groups, however younger children (< 5 years) were more likely to present to healthcare facilities than adults (OR = 5.9 (95% CI, 1.1-31.4), p = 0.039). Oral rehydration solution was used in 44.8% of cases. Having a child between 5 and 15 years in the household was associated with diarrhoea (OR = 2.3 (95% CI, 1.3-3.9), p = 0.003) and, while 26.4% of cases sought healthcare, only 4.6% were hospitalised and only 3.4% of cases had a stool specimen collected. While the majority of cases were mild, 13.8% of cases felt they required healthcare but were unable to access it.
conclusionDiarrhoeal rate was high across all age groups in this community; however, older children and adults were less likely to present to healthcare, and are therefore underrepresented through facility-based clinical surveillance. Current diarrhoeal surveillance represents a fraction of the overall cases occurring in the community.
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