ntroduction: In Ethiopia the prevalence of diarrhe
a morbidity is more common in rural than in urban a
reas. To
address this problem, interventions have been going
on based on the guidelines. There is no study that
assessed whether the
management of childhood diarrhea is according to th
e guideline or not. Therefore, the aim of this stud
y was to assess the
occurrence of childhood diarrhea and its home manag
ement among mother of under-five year children in A
rba Minch Zuria.
Methods: A community based cross-sectional study wa
s conducted in February 2012. A multistage sampling
technique was
used to select 590 households that had at least one
under-five child. Data were collected using pre-te
sted structured
questionnaire by trained data collectors. The data
were entered and analyzed using SPSS (SPSS Inc. ver
sion 16.0, Chicago,
Illinois). Descriptive statistics (frequencies, pro
portion and chi- square test) were used to describe
the study population in
relation to relevant variables. Results: In this st
udy prevalence of diarrhea was found 30.5%. which w
as significantly
associated with mother education level (X
2
= 6.0397,df =1, p-value =0.0139), knowledge about
diarrhea (X
2
= 5.0234,df =1,
p-value =0.0250), floor types of the house (X
2
= 5.1428,df=1, p-value =0.0233). number of rooms (
X
2
= 30.46,df=2, p-
value <0.00001), latrine type ((X
2
= 25.5929,df=1, p-value <0.00001), type of water t
ransportation container(X
2
=
47.878,df=1, p-value = 0.00001 ), and mother hand w
ashing practice (X
2
= 15.4182,df=1, p-value = 0.0001). The study also
showed 31% of mothers didn’t give anything to contr
ol or manage the diarrhea. Conclusion: The finding
showed that the
occurrence of diarrhea is high in the study area. A
s significant number of the mothers do not have ade
quate knowledge on
the occurrence and management of diarrhea. Counseli
ng mothers on the three rules of home treatment; gi
ve extra fluid,
continue feeding and advise the mother when to retu
rn health facility is very crucial for the control
and the prevention of
the disease. Reducing diarrhea morbidity also invol
ves providing better sanitation for the entire popu
lation and hygiene of
the person caring of the child.