Knowledge Attitude and Practices of Mothers about Diarrhea in Children under 5 years

Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding diarrhea among mothers of children lessthan 5 years of age in civil hospital Karachi.Methodology: It is a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted at Pediatrics ward and OPD Civil HospitalKarachi during July - August 2011. Non-random Convenient sampling was adopted to sample 200 subjects byinterviewing mothers after taking their consent. Mothers have at least one child less than 5 years of age wereincluded.Results: Mothers’ knowledge regarding the causes of diarrhea; contaminated water (17%), eating mud (14%),teething (10%). About signs of dehydration, 40% mothers gave unspecific signs and 26% responded with sunkeneye as the only sign while 35% answered two signs (thirst and dry hair/skin). Mothers who knew how to prepareORS were 80%. Regarding prevention of diarrhea, 15.5% mothers knew to cover food and 14.5% to boil water.Regarding health care seeking practices 52.5% mothers took the child to the doctor after 2 days, 30% mothersdid self medication.Conclusion: There is inadequate maternal knowledge; attitude and practices regarding diarrhea and its preventionin the population studied. There is need of health education to mothers about diarrhea, its causes preventionand proper treatment.