Public Health Interventions on Diarrhoeal Disease Incidence in Children across Age Groups in Abuja, Nigeria: A Community-Based, Controlled Study

Abstract

Diarrhoeal disease remains a major public health challenge and a leading cause of morbidity and mortality across age group in Nigeria. Despite global efforts by organizations such as the World Health Organization and UNICEF to reduce its burden through integrated Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) strategies and oral rehydration therapy (ORT), the disease persists, particularly in resource limited settings. This study assessed the effectiveness of public health interventions in reducing the incidence of diarrhoeal disease among households in Gwagwalada Area Council, Abuja, Nigeria. A cross-sectional controlled study design was adopted involving 106 households with young children, divided equally into intervention (n = 53) and control (n = 53) groups using purposive sampling. Data were collected through semi-structured questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests. Baseline findings showed diarrhoea prevalence of 39% in the intervention group and 41.5% in the control group. Following the implementation of hygiene education, improved water treatment practices, and distribution of oral rehydration salts (ORS), post-intervention prevalence significantly declined to 10% in the intervention group, while the control group showed no statistically significant change (39.6%). The reduction observed in the intervention group was statistically significant (p < 0.05). The findings indicate that targeted public health interventions, particularly those focused on hygiene promotion and ORS utilization, are effective in significantly reducing diarrhoeal incidence. Scaling up such integrated community-based strategies could substantially decrease childhood morbidity and mortality associated with diarrhoeal diseases in Nigeria and similar settings.