Assessment of Maternal Knowledge and Attitude towards the use of Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) in Childhood Diarrhoea Disease
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Date
2020-06
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
journal of pharmaceutical research and development
Abstract
Abstract
Diarrhoea remain one of the leading causes of death among children below the age of five. Most
infant deaths due to diarrhoea can be prevented by simple administration of oral rehydration
therapy (ORT) and mothers play an essential role in implementing this therapy. This study
assesses the knowledge, attitude and practices of mothers of under-5 children attending the
Children Specialist Hospital towards oral rehydrating therapy. Based on informed consent, a
validated semi-structured questionaire was used to collect data on ORT knowledge, attitude and
practice from a total of 203 mothers attending the Children Specialist Hospital, Ilorin, Kwara
State. Sample size was determined using the Fischer’s formula. Data obtained were checked for
completeness and then analyzed using descriptive and chi-square analysis. A total of 206
mothers were enrolled into the study, with response rate of 99 %. Based on the scoring system,
more than 70 % of mothers displayed good knowledge of the therapy while 49.3 % (100/203)
and 28.6 % (58/203) exhibited fair and poor attitude towards the therapy respectively. Overall
ORT practice among mothers in this study was very poor, with only 32.5 % (66/203) showed
good practice skill of the therapy. Mothers level of knowledge positively influence their ORT
practice (P=0.015). The findings from this study indicate that the attitude and practices of
mothers towards ORT utilization during episodes of under-5 diarrhoea disease is inadequate.
More efforts towards improving maternal knowledge, attitude and practices on the use of ORT in
the management of under-5 diarrhoea is recommended.
Description
Keywords
Knowledge, practices, mother, childhood diarrhoea, ORT
Citation
Eniayewu, O. I., Bello, I. K., Aliyu, F. O., Alimi, B. A., & Erhun, W. O. (2020). Assessment of Maternal Knowledge and Attitude towards the use of Ora Rehydration Therapy (ORT) in Childhood Diarrhoea Disease.