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| Diarrhoeal diseases remain a major public health problem,
causing more than half a million child deaths every year, particularly
in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Despite existing
knowledge on the aetiologies and causes of diarrhoeal diseases,
relatively little is known about its spatial patterns in LMICs,
including Senegal. In the present study, data from a cross-sectional
survey carried out in 2016 were analysed to describe the spatial
pattern of diarrhoeal prevalence in children under the age of 5
years in the secondary city of Mbour in the south-western part of
Senegal. Bayesian conditional autoregressive (CAR) models with
spatially varying coefficients were employed to determine the
effect of sociodemographic, economic and climate parameters on
diarrhoeal prevalence. We observed substantial spatial heterogeneities
in diarrhoea prevalence. Risk maps, stratified by age
group, showed that diarrhoeal prevalence was higher in children
aged 25-59 months compared to their younger counterparts with
the highest risk observed in the north and south peripheral neighbourhoods,
especially in Grand Mbour, Médine, Liberté and Zone
Sonatel. The posterior relative risk estimate obtained from the
Bayesian CAR model indicated that a unit increase in the proportion
of people with untreated stored drinking water was associated
with a 29% higher risk of diarrhoea. A unit increase in rainfall was
also associated with an increase in diarrhoea risk. Our findings
suggest that public health officials should integrate disease mapping
and cluster analyses and consider the varying effects of
sociodemographic factors in developing and implementing areaspecific
interventions for reducing diarrhoea. | |
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