Accounting for Recent Trends in the Prevalence of Diarrhea among under-Five Children in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Jacques B. O. Emina, University of Kinshasa
Ngianga-Bakwin Kandala, University of Warwick

With about 13 percent of child deaths due to diarrhea, approximately 60,450 annual child deaths due to diarrhea, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is the country with the third highest diarrheal morbidity among under-five children worldwide. Using data from the 2001 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys and the 2007 Demographic and Health Survey, this study describes diarrhea prevalence trends in the DRC; and identifies sources of observed changes in diarrhea prevalence. Statistics methods include trends analysis, decomposition methods and fixed effects regression models. Overall, diarrhea prevalence decreased by 26% from 22.1% in 2001 to 16.4% in 2007. Changes in behavior and/or in public health policy seem to be the likely main source of the observed changes, as there were no significant changes in diarrhea prevalence associated with variation of the population structure. However, the significant observed decrease in diarrhea prevalence contrasts with the generalized poor living conditions of the population.