P-33 Incidence of Acute Respiratory Illnesses and Diarrheal diseases in children under five years of age and its relationship with maternal knowledge, attitudes, and practices.
Author(s):
A Hutson, O Vanlewin, D Van-Veen, B Ally-Charles, E Tyrell, T Braithwaite, S Hutson
Year of Presentation:
2023
Objective: To understand the knowledge, attitudes, and
practices of mothers of children between ages 1 to 5 years
old with regard to diarrhea and acute respiratory tract illnesses as well as to determine their incidence.
Methods: A non-random convenience sampling was performed targeting 110 mothers of children ages 1-5 years. The questionnaire was designed to measure the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of mothers in regard to acute respiratory tract infections (ARIs) and diarrhea utilizing a Likert scale, along with demographics.
Results: The study showed that only 67.27% of mothers knew the correct definition of diarrhea. “Not washing hands” was the most popular response with 36.36% of respondents selecting that option, while 23.64% believed “teething” to be the cause of diarrhea. Our study showed a mean incidence of diarrhea of 1.02 episodes per child per year. The study showed that only 50.91% of persons were able to identify “infections” as the cause of a chest cold. 23.64%, 2.15%, and 14.55% believed that the cause was “playing in the rain”, “not wearing enough clothes”, and “dew falling down on the head” respectively. The mean incidence of ARIs per child per year was calculated to be 1.53.
Conclusion: The data suggests that the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of the mothers attending the Lodge Health Center as it pertains to Acute Respiratory Illnesses and diarrheal diseases are heavily influenced by culture.