A survey on knowledge and practice of mothers in prevention and care of diarrhea diseases in children under five years, Babol, 2002-03

Abstract

Background and Objective: Mortality, which caused by diarrhea and unnecessary hospital admission, can be decreased by simple, available and effective methods and mothers have an important role in this regard. Methods: This descriptive and analytical study was randomly performed on 250 mothers who had children under 5 years of age. Data were collected by questionnaire and then analyzed by descriptive statistics, Chi-square test and correlation coefficient. Findings: The knowledge of mothers towards diarrhea (84%) was moderate and their practice (50%) was low. There was a significant relationship between the knowledge and practice of mothers with variables as occupation, educational level, husband’s job and education, place of living, income, numbers of children, age of child, birth interval of children, history of diarrhea in child, information on taking care of child during diarrhea and the most important source of information. Also, there was a significant relationship between knowledge of mothers with sex of child and their practice with age (P<0.05). There was a significant linear relationship between knowledge and practice of mothers (R=0.385, P=0.000). Conclusion: Based on low practice of mothers, it is recommended to give necessary knowledge to mothers by regular educational program and make them sure that fluid therapy is effective. Therefore, they can learn necessary skills to prevent mortality of children due to dehydration.

Keywords

• knowledge
• practice
• mothers
• care
• diarrhea