OBJECTIVES: The cost of paediatric gastroenteritis is poorly documented in Asia. This analysis reports findings of a survey on disease burden, cost and productivity loss caused by paediatric gastroenteritis in Malaysia and Viet Nam. METHODS: A survey was conducted between August 2012 and April 2013 targeting respondents in public spaces in Hanoi and Bac Giang, Viet Nam and Klang Valley, Malaysia. The surveys were self-administered and collected information on demographics, disease burden, cost and productivity loss. Descriptive analysis was conducted to report the overall findings using STATA SE 11.2. RESULTS: Survey questionnaires were completed by 245 and 307 respondents from Malaysia and Viet Nam, respectively. Over 90% of the respondents were parents of children below 10. Overall, 69% reported that their children experienced gastroenteritis requiring physician visits and 28% reported episodes requiring hospital admissions. Differences were noted in the treatment seeking patterns between the two countries. These differences influenced cost and productivity loss to the families of affected children. In Malaysia, a large proportion of parents (41.2%) reported hospitalisation cost to be more than USD 350 whereas in Viet Nam, a majority (74.6%) reported hospitalisation cost less than USD 34. Among these, 52.9% and 30.5% of Malaysian and Vietnamese parents paid out-of-pocket for hospital admission, respectively. The majority reported days off work of 2 to 5 days, however more parents in Viet Nam (23.7%) required greater than 6 days off work to care for their affected child compared to Malaysia (3.9%). CONCLUSIONS: Gastroenteritis has an impact on cost and productivity loss to parents of affected children in Malaysia and Viet Nam. However, there were several differences noted likely due to differences in GDP, health system and cultural factors.