Health education study on what adults know, believe and do about illnesses in young children - abstract

ABSTRACT

This paper deals with phase 1 of a study in the use of health education for the promotion of child health among adults who bring children to the Casualty Department of the Children's Hospital in Jamaica for treatment. The study aimed at getting information on what adults know, believe and do about illnesses in young children, as a basis for developing educational programmes. Using a one-in eight systematic random sample, 569 adults who accompanied children under 5 years of age were interviewed over a period of 4 weeks during March and April, 1972. Analysis of the data showed that of the 569 children 87.5 percent were taken to the hospital by their mothers, but the mother was the person responsible for the daily care of the child in only 57.4 percent of the cases. Upper respiratory infection, measles, gastro-enteritis and dematitis made up 60 percent of the diagnoses. A quarter of these cases was accounted for by upper respiratory infection. Knowledge of the causes of the particular illness for which the child was brought was limited, and approximately 40 percent of the respondents had no idea of the cause of the child's illness. The study identified constipation, fever and coughing as the illness which more than 50 percent of the respondents thought that they could treat at home. Only 23 percent of the children were brought for treatment within the first day of illness (AU)