Breast-feeding, nutritional status, and other prognostic factors for dehydration among young children with diarrhoea in Brazil

Early identification of children at high risk of diarrhoea-associated dehydration would be of great value to health care workers in developing countries. To identify prognostic factors for life-threatening dehydration, we carried out a case-control study among under-2-year-olds in Forto Alegre, Brazil. Cases were 192 children admitted to hospital with moderate or severe dehydration, while controls were children matched to controls by neighbourhood and age, who experienced nondehydrating diarrhoea in the week preceding the interview. The following variables were significantly associated with an increased risk of dehydration, after adjustment for age and other confounding variables: absence of the father from the home; low paternal education level; young age; maternal age 25-29 years or