Clinical profile of persistent diarrhea in a DTTU.

Of the 1995 children who attended the DTTU between June 1992 to November 1993, 64 had persistent diarrhea (duration >14 days). Eleven of these were admitted with a diagnosis of acute diarrhea which got prolonged into PD during the hospital stay. Sixty four age and sex matched children with acute diarrhea (duration <7 days) served as controls. Detailed history including maternal literacy, pre-admission drug use, feeding pattern, previous history of PD and type and frequency of stools was recorded. Anthropometric measurements, presence and persistence of dehydration beyond 24 hours, malnutrition as per IAP classification, in hospital weight loss and evidence of systemic infection were especially looked for. Routine stool examination was carried out for all patients. Other investigations were asked for whenever indicated. The entire data was entered in a pretested proforma. SPSS PC+ was used to calculate the crude odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) by univariate analysis. Adjusted OR and 95% CI were computed by logistic regression analysis to