Abstract:
Background: - Diarrhea disease is a common cause of morbidity and mortality among people
living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV). The magnitude of diarrhea disease among PLHIV ranges from
30% to 60% in developed and 90% in developing countries. It speeds up the progression from
HIV to AIDS and can easily impaired absorption of important nutrients, which can lead to
negative impact on quality of life. There is also limited information on possible risk factors for
diarrheal diseases among HIV infected patients in west Hararghe zone. The aim of this study
was to identify the predictors of Diarrhea disease among adult PLHIV attending ART in west
Hararghe Zone General Hospitals, East Ethiopia
Method and Materials: - A facility-based case control study was conducted from April to
May 2019. Consecutive sampling methods was used to select 94 cases and 190 controls .Data
were collected using pretested structured questionnaire through face-to-face interviewer
checklist was used to collect clinical data from medical record. Data were entered to Epidata
4.4 and exported to SPSS 23 version .Descriptive statistics and bivariate logistic regression
was used to identify candidate variables for multivariable logistic regression model. Hosmer
and Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test was used to test model adequacy. Multivariable logistic
regression was computed and adjusted odd ratio (AORs) with their corresponding to 95% CIs
was used to assess strength of association.
Result: - In the study, 90 (96.4%) cases and 186 (98.8%) controls were participated. PLHIV
who had history of diarrhea were more than two times (AOR= 2.5; 95% CI: 1.3, 4.8) more
likely to have diarrhea compare to their counterparts. Adult PLHIV who had pets in their houses
were more than three times (AOR=3.4, 95% CI: 1.8, 6.4) more likely to had diarrhea compared
to those who had not. PLHIV who had washed their hands sometimes after visiting toilet were
three times (AOR=3.0; 95% CI: 1.5, 6.1) more likely to be affected by diarrhea compared to
their counterparts. PLHIV who consumed less than 20 liters water per day per capita were more
than two times (AOR=2.6; 95% CI:1.2, 5.4) more likely to acquired diarrhea.
Conclusions -The independent predictors of diarrheal disease among PLHIV were, presence
of pets household, washing hand sometimes after visiting toilet, consuming less than 20 liters
of water per day and previous history of diarrhea .Regional Health bureau should strengthening
of WASH activities among PLHIV .Health care providers for HIV/AIDS care should work on
hygiene
