Prevalence of diarrhea types in children admitted in the pediatric department of Maiwand Teaching Hospital in Kabul city during one year

Abstract Background: Diarrhea is a clinical condition when a child has three or more loose defecation in one day. Acute diarrhea has rapid onset and lasts for less than two weeks, persistent diarrhea lasts for longer than two weeks and frequently has infectious causes, and chronic diarrhea lasts for longer but particularly does not have infectious causes. Methods: This is a cross sectional study which has been done on 4125 patients who had been hospitalized during one year (March 2021-March 2022) in MTH, the sampling method was Census and the patients who suffer from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) or not has been considered Results: This cross sectional study has been done on 4125 child who had been hospitalized in pediatric department of Maiwand Teaching Hospital during one year and the prevalence of diarrhea according to age, gender and its types among patients who has been suffering from (SAM) or has not been suffering from (SAM) is considered and at result it has been found that the prevalence of diarrhea among all hospitalized children is 25.89 percent. Among those who have not been suffering from (SAM) the prevalence of diarrhea was 21.77% whereas among those who have been suffering from SAM the prevalence of diarrhea was 35.75%. In this research it has been found that the prevalence of diarrhea is more in boys than in girls (59.92%). According to age the prevalence of diarrhea was much more at the age of 2months-3years (53.26%). The prevalence of acute diarrhea was 85.95% and was the most common type of diarrhea found in this research. Conclusion: Acute diarrhea is still a great problem in developing countries among pediatrics population and the prevalence of it relates directly to the nutritional status of the child.