Introduction:

The World Health Organization states that prevalent childhood diseases in 2016 caused a mortality of 5 million in children under 5 years old, due to pneumonia and acute diarrheal disease.

Objective:

Examine modifiable risk factors for prevalent childhood diseases in traditional community welfare homes in Cucuta, Colombia.

Methods:

An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in 2018 in 23 households of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare in Cúcuta; the information was collected from the instrument to identify risk factors for prevalent childhood diseases after initial testing.

Results:

276 children were attended, 56.8% of them were boys. Modifiable risk factors were identified in homes; in 22,0% of these, children should improve hand washing; with a similar percentage, it was shown that the cleaning of teaching materials, toys, fans and curtains should be insisted upon; in 17.3% regular infrastructure conditions were observed. In addition, 20,0% of the children shared food, there were children with ongoing diseases and absence of care protocols to follow in such cases, among others.

Conclusions:

The risk factors can be intervened through the strategy of integrated care for prevalent childhood diseases from its clinical, community and local organization components for its prevention, with the interest and understanding of the shared responsibility for the care of this health problem.

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