ABSTRACT
Mothers' knowledge and management of pain in infants were assessed in this study. A total of 130 mothers from two health centres in Ile Ife, Southwest, Nigeria were selected by systematic sampling method. Only 3.8% indicated that neonates experience pain. Malaria (46.2%) was the major cause of pain identified. Analgesic/antimalarials (56.9%) and breastfeeding (16.9%) are used in pain relief. To improve the quality of life of infants, mothers must be educated on the assessment, early detection and management of pain.
Subject(s)
Health Education/organization & administration , Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice , Mothers/statistics & numerical data , Pain Management , Adult , Analgesics/therapeutic use , Attitude to Health , Breast Feeding , Caregivers , Cohort Studies , Developing Countries , Female , Humans , Infant , Infant Care/methods , Infant, Newborn , Mother-Child Relations , Needs Assessment , Nigeria , Pain/diagnosis , Pain Measurement , Risk Assessment , Sensitivity and Specificity , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Public health research is shifting focus to the role of socioeconomic indicators in the promotion of health. As such an understanding of the roles that socio-economic factors play in improving health and health-seeking behaviour is important for public health policy. This is because the share of resources devoted to different policy options should depend on their relative effectiveness. OBJECTIVE: To measure the effect of socio-economic status (age, education, occupation, income, religion and family structure) of mothers on the management of febrile conditions in under-fives children. METHOD: Two hundred mothers who brought their febrile under-five children to a health facility were interviewed on the treatment they gave to their children before reporting at health facility. Data collected were entered and analyzed using the SPSS software. Binary logistic regression was adopted for the quantitative analysis of the effect of socio-economic variables on the mothers' actions prior to utilizing the health facility. RESULTS: Results showed that while mothers' age was negatively correlated (-0.13), occupation was positively correlated (0.17) with under-fives mothers' action. Education, religion, income and family structure were however insignificant at 5% level. CONCLUSION: This poses a lot of challenges to policy makers in the developing nations where women's education and earning capacity is low. There is therefore a need to increase the number of women benefiting from micro credit. This will ensure that more women are engaged in a form of occupation that is profitable and can sustain the economic and health needs of the family.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To assess the care given to febrile children under 5 years old at home prior to attending health facility. DESIGN: Cross sectional design. SETTING: Outpatient clinic of a government health facility. SUBJECTS: Two hundred mothers who brought their sick children to the outpatient department were interviewed. RESULTS: The ages of mothers ranged from 15 to 50 years (mean of 26.2 years). Most of them had formal education although below grade 12. Only 12.5% of them were full-time housewives. Others were engaged in self-employed occupations. Fifty-one percent of the children were females. Their ages ranged between 6 months and 5 years with a mean of 2.6 years. Over 60% of the children were suffering from symptoms of acute respiratory infections while 28% had symptoms of malaria. There was no significant difference between mothers' diagnosis and researchers' diagnosis (chi(2) = 0.199, P < 0.05). The duration of children's illnesses spanned from 1 to 60 days (mean of 4.8 days). Only one mother reported at the clinic within 24 h of the onset of the child's illness. Eighty-one percent had taken action before coming to clinic. They had used combinations of drugs namely antipyretics, antimalarials and antibiotics. The average amount spent on drugs was US$0.57. These drugs were purchased at local medicine stores. CONCLUSION: The findings indicate home use of drugs that were not prescribed by health professionals. There is therefore a strong need to give appropriate education and counselling to mothers/care givers and medicine vendors on early detection and proper home management of febrile illnesses.
