Possible associations between drinking-water quality and the occurrence of diarrhea cases have been researched, using the 2004 Diarrhea Disease Monitoring Program in the city of Vitória, state of Espírito Santo, Brazil. For water quality analysis, data from the Water Quality Control Program, performed by the Public Supply Service, and from the Water Quality Surveillance, performed by the local municipal government, were used. The epidemiological delimitation adopted was the ecological study. Georeferencing tools for the representation of the studied samples and univariate and multivariate linear regression analyses were utilized. Statistically significant associations for the occurrence of diarrhea with turbidity, total coliform and thermo-tolerant parameters were found. The results reveal the need of greater care in the water supply network. However, as diarrhea can be the cause of various disorders, actions must be proposed in order to characterize the ailment and define its source of infection, so that the transmission chain can be interrupted.
Diarrhea; Water Quality; Ecological Study; Linear Regression
