Assessment of child health care practices in Tu Liem district, Ha Noi and Tien Hai district, Thai Binh province

ABSTRACT

Background: Child health care practices in the context of households and community is an important factor to improving the health of children. Some indexes were proposed by the World Health Organization to evaluate these practices. Objectives: To describe the knowledge and practice of pregnant women, under-5-year-old children\u2019s health care and assess the application of the survey toolkit in evaluating various indexes of healthcare practice at family and community levels. Subjects and method: By employing a structured interview, this cross-sectional survey has been conducted in Tu Liem district - Hanoi city and Tien Hai district \u2013 Thai Binh province. 120 mothers of under-5-year-old children participated in the survey. Results:98% of mothers had at least 3 antenatal visits during pregnancy. The rate of complete tetanus vaccination reached 43.3% in Tu Liem and 65% in Tien Hai. Prevalence of infant with low birth weight for age accounted for 8.3% in both districts. The percentage of children given complementary feeding at age of 6 to 9 months as the National Nutrition Program recommendations was only 30%. 65.7% and 68.5% of under-2-year-old children in Tu Liem and Tien Hai were breastfed within the first 30 minutes after delivery. There were a small proportion of mothers who gave complementary food either too early or too late, 8.3% and 8.4% in Tu Liem, 6.7% and 6.6% in Tien Hai, respectively. More than 90% of children were given normal feeding as usual during last their illness, but only 50% of children were given more fluid than usual. 98.2% of mothers knew 2 signs to immediately bring the child to health facilities. The most common injuries in under-5-year-old children were animal bites (62.5%) and falling (31.3%), however only 62.5% of mothers knew at least two measures of injury prevention. Conclusion: The toolkit for collecting data of practical index assessment can be applied at communes.