RESUMO
PIP: Interviews were conducted in the 75 households nearest to each of the 36 rural health facilities in Uganda's Mbale District in order to estimate childhood morbidity/mortality and the utilization of health services. Data were obtained on 2596 children under 5 years of age. There were 50 deaths in the 527 live births in the 12 months preceding the survey, giving an infant mortality rate of 95/1000. There were an additional 51 deaths among the 2069 children 1-4 years of age (25/1000). 34% of deaths among infants and 69% of deaths among children 1-4 years of age were associated with diarrhea. Of the 2495 children 0-4 years of age who were alive at the time of the survey, 506 (20%) had diarrhea in the 2 weeks preceding the survey and there was a diarrhea morbidity rate of 3.2 episodes/year/child. Only 60 (12%) of the children with diarrhea were treated with some form of oral rehydration; 314 (62%) were given drugs obtained from local pharmacies. Finally, only 38% of children 1-4 years of age and 21% of infants under 1 year of age were fully immunized for their age. These findings suggest high rates of childhood mortality and underutilization of preventive health services among households in the immediate vicinity of health facilities. This research approach can be used to facilitate program evaluation, even though the results cannot be generalized to the entire population of the district. It provides local health workers with an opportunity to assess their community's health needs and motivates them to improve health care delivery.^ieng
