Clinics in Mother and Child Health

The Knowledge and Practice of Mothers Caring for their Children with Acute Respiratory Infection among those attending the Under-Five Unit at Bedele Hospital, Southwest Ethiopia

Lalisa Chewaka Gamtessa^1* and Sheka Shemsi Seid^{2 1}Department of Nursing, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Mizan Tepi University, Mizan Teferi, Ethiopia
²Department of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Institute of Health, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia
^*Correspondence: Lalisa Chewaka Gamtessa, Department of Nursing, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Mizan Tepi University, Mizan Teferi, Ethiopia, Tel: 251 929334173, Email:

Received: 03-May-2021 Published: 24-May-2021, DOI: 10.35248/2090-7214.21.18.390

Introduction

Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) is one of the leading causes of morbidity, mortality and the main reason for seeking healthcare services for children. It is an important public health concern (Trollfors, 1994). ARI comprises Upper Respiratory Infection (URI) and Lower Respiratory Infection (LRI); of which Upper respiratory infection presents mainly with Rhinitis, tonsillitis, and Sinusitis while the main presentations of LRI are Pneumonia which exhibits an increased respiratory rate [1].

The facility based cross-sectional study conducted (N=400) shown that ARI attributed to 30-60% of pediatric outpatient attendance and 20-30% of all hospital admissions. Among these, 162 (40.43%) of children were born to illiterate fathers while 168(41.89%) of these children were from the family with a history of respiratory illness. According to WHO, the prompt health-seeking behavior can reduce 20% all deaths to ARI with mothers taking the lion’s share [2].

In Ethiopia, there is the neonatal mortality rate of 29 per 1,000 live births, 48 deaths per 1,000 live births of infant mortality (IMR) and an Under-five mortality rate of 67 respectively (E. P. H. I. (EPHI) [Ethiopia] and ICF, 2019; C. S. A. (CSA) [Ethiopia] and ICF., 2016. The presumed reason for the neonatal mortality is a delay in seeking health service which depends on awareness related ARI. This study therefore aimed at describing the level of knowledge and practice of mothers caring for ARI in the study area [3].

Methods

Study area and period

The study was conducted on April 1-20, 2018 at the Hospital, found in Oromia regional state, southwest Ethiopia at the distance of 488 km from Addis Ababa.

Study design

Facility-based cross-sectional study.

Source population

All mothers who seek the care for their children at under-five Unit with any problem.

Study population

All mothers who brought their children with a problem of ARI the hospital during study period.

Sample size determination and technique

The sample size was determined using a single proportion formula. Considering a 10% non-response rate, the final sample size became 195.

Inclusion Criteria

All volunteer mothers who brought their sick children to under-five Unit.

Data collection procedures and instrument

Structured questioners containing a variable of socio-demographic characteristics and knowledge and practice of mother on ARI have been used for interview respondents. The questioner was prepared in English and translated in Afan Oromo which was the local language of the area.

Data quality control

Pretest conducted at one of the health center in the vicinity and principal investigators checked the filled questionnaire for completeness, accuracy, and consistency as well.

Data analysis

Data were analyzed with SPSS and presented with figures and tables.

Operational definitions

Care givers: Refers to all mothers involved in the care of their children.

ARI: An infection includes ear, nose, throat, larynx, trachea, bronchi, Bronchioles and lung.

Knowledge: The score is determined by adding the number of the correct answers for the knowledge check questions. Those who answered more 50% out of items considered were as having good knowledge, but poor knowledge if otherwise which applies for the context of good and poor practice [4].

Practice: care of children with acute respiratory infections cares that include giving the prescribed medication, giving of fluids and any other support.

Results

Among the total 195 mothers were interviewed 59(30.25%) of them were illiterate. There were a nearly equal number of Muslims and Protestants (68 vs. 67) and the majority of the respondents were Oromo 172(88.21%) (Table 1).

More than one third of mothers were house wives while a few of them were students (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Distribution of occupation of Mothers.

Table 1: Socio demographic characteristics of mothers and their children.

Knowledge and practice of mothers on ARI (n=195).

112(57.4%) of respondents knew that the cause of ARI was microorganism and 83(42.6%) of them claimed evil eyes as the cause of ARI. 106(54.36%) of them brought their children to the clinic for support immediately. In short, 70% of mothers had good knowledge of ARI (Table 2).

Table 2: The knowledge of Mothers about ARTI.

Nearly one third of mothers who visited health facility were with their first born baby (Figure 2).

Figure 2: The birth order of child who has been treated at under-five Unit.

Result that of practice of mothers on caring child with ARI.

From study participants, only 57(29.23%) gave the honey for their children as the home remedy while 192(98.46%) of mothers given the drug appropriately for their children. In general, only 57.5% of the mothers had a good practice on giving care for the children with ARI in pre-hospital activity (Table 3).

Table 3: Pre-hospital practice of mothers in caring for ARTI.

Discussion

In this study, 70% of mothers had good knowledge of ARI. The finding is exactly similar to the study conducted in Darul Sehat hospital. This good knowledge might have helped the majority of mothers 171(87.69%) for taking their children more often to health facilities. In the same way, 194(99.49) of mothers had appropriately given antibiotics for their children. This finding is too high when compared to a study conducted in Bavi, Vietnam, on 828 among whom only 108 (13%) had given the antibiotics for their children. This might be reflective of good knowledge of mothers about ARI for this study [5].

Home remedies were practiced by 80(41.03%) of the mothers. In the same fashion, 57(29.23%), use honey as the best home remedies of ARI in children. A similar study conducted in Kenya, Baringo showed that 46.6% of mothers utilized herbs for measles associated with severe respiratory distress. This is much less than finding this particular study which may be due to a relatively large sample size (N=309 vs N=195) and the participants of the study have good knowledge about ARI. On the other hand, the study conducted in Ghana revealed that only 5% practiced home remedies which are small when compared to the finding of this study. The disparity might be due to the difference sample size of the study in Ghana (N=1000) [6-8].

Conclusion

The finding of this study revealed that 70% of the mothers had good knowledge while the rest, 30% had poor knowledge. In the same way, 57.5% of mothers had good practice while 42.85% of mothers had poor practice. Therefore it is better if the Hospital and the woreda Health office cooperatively consider the outreach program to increase and preserve the good knowledge, and improve the practice of mothers caring for children with ARI. We also call for interested researcher to investigate determinant factors.

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