Differentials in health-related variables among children at a diarrhoea training unit in Pakistan.
The study assesses gender differences and other variables related to diarrhoea in 500 children less than two years of age at a diarrhoea training unit (DTU). During the study period, 78% of the children (51% males and 49% females) who were brought for care had no dehydration. More female children were malnourished than male. Exclusively bottle-fed infants were malnourished in higher proportion than those breastfed exclusively or partially. With worsening of nutritional status, severity of dehydration increased but it had no effect on the frequency of dysentery which was seen in 11 females and 10 males. Appropriate supplementary feeding was alarmingly low. Eighty-seven per cent of children 9-24 months of age had received their immunisation against measles. All children were rehydrated at the DTU and not a single case required admission. The study does not show preferential care-seeking for male children and suggests that educational efforts be focused on exclusive breastfeeding, appropriate weaning and home management of those cases with no dehydration.