Determinants of Mothers' Treatment of Diarrhea in Under-Five Children
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Date
1989-05
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Addis Abeba Universty
Abstract
The objective of the study was to identify the knowledge,
attitude and practice concerning current diarrheal treatment by
rural mothers. From 11 randomly selected peasant associations in
Wolayta awraja, 6414 mothers were interviewed to determine
whether they had children under five years of age and whether any
child had diarrhea in the previous two-week period. The 654
mothers whose children had diarrhea were interviewed about their
knowledge, attitudes and treatment practices for the current
diarrhea using a structured questionnaire. The results showed
that the prevalence of diarrhea in the study community was 11.1%;
73 of the diarrheal children died indicating a mortality rate of
11.4 per 1000 children under five years f or 2 weeks.
home treatment of diarrheal cases, only 12.3%
Concerning
of mothers
increased the amount of fluid gi ven, 19.9% increased or gave the
same amount of food, and 20.5% gave ORS or ORT to the diarrheal
child. Use of health institutions was found to be 7.3%.
Determinants of treatment practices were: 1) mothers' knowledge
about causes and consequences of diarrhea; and 2) nature of the
chi ld' s diarrhea such as concurrent vomiting and frequency of the
diarrhea in 24 hours. Mothers preferred to seek treatment from
drug s hops than from health institutions despite the fact that
the latter were nearer to their homes. The outcome of diarrhea
was significantly associated with treatment practices.
Description
Keywords
Determinants of Mothers