Table 2.
Use of antibiotics for treatment of watery diarrhoea in children up to 4 years of age at two large health care centres in Abakaliki, Nigeria
| Variable | N* | Treated with antibiotics Number (%) |
95% confidence interval (mid-P Exact) | P value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age < 1 year | 136 | 117 (86.0) | 79.4–91.1 | 0.598 |
| Age 1–4 years | 63 | 56 (88.9) | 79.3–95.0 | |
| Female | 74 | 62 (83.8) | 74.1–90.9 | 0.299 |
| Male | 119 | 106 (89.1) | 82.5–93.8 | |
| Urban | 88 | 72 (81.8) | 72.7–88.9 | 0.066 |
| Rural | 110 | 100 (90.9) | 84.4–95.3 | |
| No fever | 3 | 3 (100) | 36.8–100.0 | 0.656 |
| Fever | 196 | 170 (86.7) | 81.4–91.0 | |
| No vomiting | 15 | 12 (80.0) | 54.7–94.7 | 0.423 |
| Vomiting | 184 | 161 (87.5) | 82.1–91.7 | |
| No mucus in stool | 59 | 54 (91.5) | 82.2–96.8 | 0.247 |
| Mucus in stool | 137 | 117 (85.4) | 78.7–90.6 | |
| No blood in stool | 189 | 163 (86.2) | 80.8–90.6 | 0.238 |
| Blood in stool | 10 | 10 (100.0) | 74.1–100.0 | |
| Diarrhoea duration: < 1 week |
148 | 129 (87.2) | 81.0–91.9 | 0.854 |
| Duration of diarrhoea: 1 week or more | 51 | 44 (86.3) | 74.7–93.8 | |
| Diarrhoea frequency: up to 3 times per 24 h | 58 | 45 (77.6) | 65.6–86.9 | 0.018** |
| Diarrhoea frequency: > 3 times per 24 h |
141 | 128 (90.8) | 85.1–94.8 | |
| Total | 199 | 173 (86.9) | 81.7–91.1 |
*Whether antibiotics were used was not reported for one child, gender was not reported for six children, rural-urban was missing data for one child, and presence of mucus in stool was not reported for three children
**Statistically significant difference