Influence of household environment and maternal behaviors to upper respiratory infection among toddlers

Abstract

Upper respiratory infection (URI) in developing countries causes high morbidity among toddlers. Indonesia Health Ministry reported that non-pneumonia acute respiratory infection (ARI) increased by 2.6% from 2007 to 2011. Risk factors which may contribute to URI include environment and behavior. This study aimed to investigate environmental and behavioral factors with URI among toddlers. This case control study was conducted on February – April 2015 among toddlers in Tamansari that is a slum area in Bandung City. Case was 55 mothers with toddlers suffering from URI who came to primary health care, meanwhile control was twice bigger than cases selected from the environment and matched for age, sex and nutritional status. Environmental factors were density, humidity, ventilation, temperature and smoke disposal. Meanwhile, behavioral factors were hand-washing, mother’s smoking behavior, the use of mask, vitamin A consumption and exclusive breastfeeding. Results of study showed that environmental factor related to URI was only density with p value = 0.021 and OR = 2.843 (CI 95% = 1.168 – 6.920). None of maternal behavior factor was related to URI. Reducing density is an important and challenging issue in slum area, same as similary health promotion and prevention concerning URI are still necessary to reduce the risk of this disease among toddlers in urban slum area.