Utilizing Healthcare Developments, Demographic Data with Statistical Techniques to Estimate the Diarrhoea Prevalence in India

Shweta Srivastava, Vatsalya Vatsalya, Ashoo Arora, Kashmiri L. Arora, Robert Karch

College of Arts and Sciences, American University, Washington DC, USA.
Department of Pediatrics, Ashirwad Hospital and Research Center, Dehradun, India.
Department of Veterinary Science, Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, USA.
School of Medicine, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/aid.2012.21001                

Abstract

Diarrhoea is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in developing countries in Africa and South Asia such as India. Prevalence of diarrheal diseases in those countries is higher than developed western world and largely has been associated with socio-economic and sanitary conditions. However, present available data has not been sufficiently evaluated to study the role of other factors like healthcare development, population density, sex and regional influence on diarrheal prevalence pattern. Study was performed to understand the relationship of diarrheal prevalence with specific measures namely; healthcare services development, demographics, population density, socio-economic conditions, sex, and regional prevalence patterns in India. Data from Annual national health reports and other epidemiological studies were included and statistically analyzed. Our results demonstrate significant correlation of the disease prevalence pattern with certain measures like healthcare centers, population growth rate, sex and region-specific morbidity. Available information on sanitation like water supply and toilet availability and socioeconomic conditions like poverty and literacy measures could only be associated as trends of significance. This study can be valuable for improvisation of appropriate strategies focused on important measures like healthcare resources, population growth and regional significances to evaluate prevalence patterns and management of the diarrhoea locally and globally.

Keywords

Demographics; Diarrhoea; Healthcare; India; Prevalence

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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