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Table 1 Symptoms, duration, number of episodes, treatment, and health care sought among cases of diarrhoea in individuals living in homes with and without cisterns

From: Comparison of the burden of diarrhoeal illness among individuals with and without household cisterns in northeast Brazil

 

All cases

Cases with Cisterns

Cases without Cisterns

p-value†

Symptoms (Number and %)

Blood in stool

62/531 (11.7%)

25/202 (12.4%)

37/329 (11.3%)

0.694

Liquid/watery stool

460/517 (89.0%)

178/199 (89.5%)

282/318 (88.7%)

0.786

Duration (Per month)

Mean number of days with diarrhoea and SD

3.9 (n = 534)

3.6 (n = 204)

4.0 (n = 330)

0.183

SD 2.83

SD 3.26

Number of Episodes (Per month)

Mean number of diarrhoeal episodes and SD

1.5 (n = 534)

1.6 (n = 204)

1.5 (n = 330)

0.307

SD 0.96

SD 0.80

Number and percent of cases with more than one episode

196/534 (36.7%)

76/204 (37.3%)

120/330 (36.4%)

0.836

Treatment (Number and %)

Took medication or home therapy

260/530 (49.1%)

106/202 (52.5%)

154/328 (47.0%)

0.217

Care Sought (Number and %)

None

307/535 (57.4%)

114/204 (55.9%)

193/331 (58.3%)

0.582

Community Health Agent (ACS)

51/535 (9.5%)

22/204 (10.8%)

29/331 (8.8%)

0.439

Referral to Health Post

124/535 (23.2%)

46/204 (22.6%)

78/331 (23.6%)

0.787

Referral to hospital

61/535 (11.4%)

27/204 (13.2%)

34/331 (10.3%)

0.295

Other

6/535 (1.1%)

2/204 (1.0%)

4/331 (1.2%)

0.808

  1. SD: standard deviation.
  2. † Comparison between individuals with and without cisterns using Pearson’s Chi-squared test for differences in symptoms, treatment and health care sought and two-way t-test for differences in means.