Impact of complementary foods and environmental sanitation on the incidence of diarrhea in children aged 6-24 months in sidoarjo, Indonesia

Diarrhea is a watery or liquid defecate three or more times per day which can be caused by inadequate complementary feeding and inadequate environmental sanitation. The purpose of this study was to explain the correlation giving complementary food and environmental sanitation with the incidence of diarrhea in children aged 6-24 months in Kedungkendo Village, Candi Sub-district, Sidoarjo District. Method: This descriptive cross-sectional study. The sample size was 109 mothers who had children aged 6-24 months used simple random sampling. The independent variable in this study was the giving complementary feeding (the first age of giving complementary feeding and the type of giving complementary feeding) and environmental sanitation (clean water facilities, toilet facilities, garbage facilities). The dependent variable was the incidence of diarrhea. Data obtained from questionnaires and observations then analyzed using the chisquare statistical test. Result: The first age of giving complementary food and the type of complementary feeding was no correlation with the incidence of diarrhea (p=0.395; p=0.214). However, there was a significant relationship between clean water facilities (p = 0.001), latrine facilities (p = 0.001), and garbage facilities (p = 0.006) with diarrhea incidence. Discussion: Adequate environmental sanitation can prevent the incidence of diarrhea, although giving complementary food is not correlate to the incidence of diarrhea, but it is very important to provide adequate complementary feeding to children aged 6-24 months to prevent diarrhea.