Background: Childhood diarrhea and Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) are some of the diseases that share common risk factors in tropical developing regions. The objective of the study was to identify risk factors of childhood diarrhea and ARI among children age under-five years old based on 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey data.
Methods: A joint binary response model that accommodates the interdependence between the two diseases was employed.
Results: We found a common odds ratio value (4.30) greater than unity, describing a positive association between the two childhood diseases. Thereby, employing a joint model to assess the potential factors for diarrhea and acute respiratory infection (ARI) was reasonable. Moreover, it was identified that standard errors of the parameter estimates in the joint response model were smaller compared to the corresponding standard errors of the separate models.
Conclusion: In the joint model, explanatory variables such as residence, vaccination, mother’s education, and antenatal care visits during pregnancy were found statistically significant risk factors for diarrhea, whereas residence, number of children ever born, vaccination, mother’s education, and wealth index were statistically significant risk factors for childhood Acute Respiratory Infection. The two correlated dichotomous response variables that is, diarrhea and ARI were affected together significantly by the risk factors such as residence, vaccination, and mother’s education.