KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PERCEPTIONS OF MOTHERS ABOUT DIARRHOEA HAVING AT LEAST ONE CHILD UNDER FIVE YEARS
Keywords:
Diarrhoea, mothers, child, knowledge, attitude, perceptionAbstract
Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and perception regarding diarrhea among mothers of children less than
five years of age in public hospital at Peshawar.
Material and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study conducted at Pediatrics Ward and OPD of Khyber Teaching
Hospital, Peshawar, Pakistan from March 2015 to April 2015. Convenient sampling was adopted to sample 460 subjects
by interviewing mothers after taking their consent. Mothers having at least one child less than five years of age and
who came to the hospital were included in the study.
Results: Mother’s knowledge regarding the main causes of diarrhoea; contaminated water-71.09%; contaminated
food-83.04%; handling food without washing hands-32.61%. About signs of dehydration, 72.60% mothers knew about
the signs of dehydration but only 15.65% were able to fully appreciate it. Mothers who knew how to prepare ORS were
78%. Regarding prevention of diarrhoea, only 18% mothers perceived the importance of personal hygiene while only
6.30% did boil water. Covering food practice was being done by 6.08% mothers. 73.91% mothers said that they used
antibiotics for diarrhoea.
Conclusion: There is an inadequate maternal knowledge, attitudes and lack of perceiving the diarrhoea and its scope.
There is need of proper and effective health education to mothers about diarrhoea, its causes, prevention and management.
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