Exploring the Association Between Floods and Diarrhea among Under-five Children in Rural India.

Objective: Flood is one of the major public health concerns increasing the risk of childhood diarrhea. This study aims to explore the association of floods with diarrhea among under-five children in rural India.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out using large-scale nationally representative data from the National Family Health Survey-5. The Central Water Commission reports between the years 2018 and 2020 were used to group all the districts as non-flood-affected districts or flood-affected districts. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models were employed to assess the association of floods with childhood diarrhea.

Results: The prevalence of diarrhea was higher among children exposed to three consecutive floods during the year 2019-21 than those children not exposed to flood. Children exposed to flood three times between the year 2018-19 to 2020-21 were associated with a 34% higher likelihood of developing diarrhea than those children exposed to flood one or two times.

Conclusions: Our study suggests that community health workers should target mothers belonging to the poor wealth quintile, young mothers, and mothers with young infants and more children to receive child health related counseling in flood-prone areas.