Accounting for recent trends in the prevalence of diarrhea in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

With about 1 percent of the global population, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the third highest diarrheal morbidity among under-five children worldwide. This study aimed to describe trends in diarrhea prevalence by selected socioeconomic characteristics; identify the sources of variation, and assess contribution of changes the DRC. The study used information on 9,748 children from the 2001 Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey and 7,987 children from the 2007 Demographic and Health Survey. Statistical techniques include trends analysis, decomposition method and fixed effect regression models.
Findings revealed significant decrease in diarrhea prevalence in all socioeconomic categories considered. Changes in behavior and/or in public health policy seem to be likely the main source of the observed changes, as there were no significant changes in diarrhea prevalence associated with variation of the population structure. However, the decrease in diarrhoea prevalence in the DRC contrasts with the generalized humanitarian crisis, deterioration in environmental conditions and population poverty observed in the country during the same study period. These findings suggest further investigations through district or provincial based studies to validate findings from national surveys.