Association between clinical type of diarrhoea and growth of children under 5 years in rural Bangladesh

Background. The role of diarrhoea in the aetiology of growth retardation in young children remains controversial. To evaluate this, a population-based , longitudinal study of young children aged 6-48 months was conducted in Ma tlab, a rural area of Bangladesh, between May 1988 and April 1989. Methods. Data obtained from 584 children were examined by one-year (n = 412 ) and 3-month (n = 1220) growth periods. Each growth period was analysed ba sed on clinical types of diarrhoea, namely, non-diarrhoea, non-dysentery di arrhoea (diarrhoea without blood), and dysentery (diarrhoea with blood). We ight and height gains were compared among the study groups initially by one -way analysis of variance followed by multivariate analysis adjusting for p otential confounding variables. Results. Compared to non-diarrhoea and non-dysentery diarrhoea, dysentery w as associated with significantly lower annual weight gain (1866 g [P < 0.01 ] and 1550 g [P < 0.05] versus 1350 g, respectively) and height gain (6.51 cm and 5.87 cm versus 5.27 cm [P ( <0.01], respectively). Both 3-month dyse ntery and non-dysentery intervals were significantly associated with less w eight gain compared to non-diarrhoea intervals (490 g and 522 g versus 637 g [P < 0.05], respectively). Dysentery intervals were also associated with significantly poorer height gain compared to other intervals (2.19 an versu s 2.42 an [P < 0.05] and 2.46 an [P < 0.01], respectively). Conclusions. The growth of young children is strongly influenced by the cli nical type of diarrhoea and the impact is dependent on the proportion of dy sentery episodes in the total diarrhoeal burden.