Care seeking for diarrheal illness: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Monitoring and treating diarrheal illness often rely on individuals seeking care at hospitals or clinics. Cases that seek care through pharmacies and community health workers (CHW) are frequently excluded from disease burden estimates, which are used to allocate mitigation resources. Studies on care seeking behavior can help identify these gaps but typically focus on children under five, even though diarrheal diseases like cholera and Enterotoxigenic E. coli affect all age groups. This study aimed to estimate the proportion of individuals seeking care for themselves or their children with diarrhea, considering different age groups, case definitions, and study settings.

Methods and findings

We conducted a systematic review of population-based primary research studi

SUBMITTER: Wiens KE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11661383 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature