Mothers' health care seeking behavior and associated factors for common childhood illnesses, Northwest Ethiopia: community based cross-sectional study

• Published in: BMC health services research 2019-01, Vol.19 (1), p.59-59, Article 59
• Main Authors: Simieneh, Muluye Molla, Mengistu, Mezgebu Yitayal, Gelagay, Abebaw Addis, Gebeyehu, Mulugeta Tesfa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Analysis; Behavior; Births; Caregivers; Caregivers - psychology; Caregivers - statistics & numerical data; Child behavior; Child death; Child health; Child mortality; Child, Preschool; Childhood; Childhood illness; Children; Children & youth; Childrens health; Cross-Sectional Studies; Data collection; Diarrhea; Diarrhea - epidemiology; Diarrhea - therapy; Drug stores; Ethics; Ethiopia; Ethiopia - epidemiology; Female; Fever; Fever - epidemiology; Fever - therapy; Forecasts and trends; Health care reform; Health care seeking behavior; Health facilities; Health sciences; Health services; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Informal economy; Low income groups; Medical care utilization; Medical personnel; Mortality; Mother-child relations; Mothers; Mothers - psychology; Mothers - statistics & numerical data; Mothers/care givers; Odds Ratio; Patient Acceptance of Health Care - psychology; Patient Acceptance of Health Care - statistics & numerical data; Pediatric diseases; Pharmacy; Principal components analysis; Professionals; Public health; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; Respiratory Tract Infections - epidemiology; Respiratory Tract Infections - therapy; Rural Health - statistics & numerical data; Sample size; Sampling techniques; Socioeconomic Factors; Statistical analysis; Supervisors; Surveys and Questionnaires; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1472-6963; 1472-6963
• DOI: 10.1186/s12913-019-3897-4

Substantial progress has been made in reducing child mortality over the last decades, however the magnitude of the problem is yet high globally Appropriate health care-seeking behavior of mothers/guardians for common childhood illnesses could prevent a significant number of child deaths and complications due to childhood illnesses, currently, there is few of studies in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to assess mothers/caregivers health care seeking behavior for their children in Northwest Ethiopia. Community based cross-sectional study of rural mothers living in Aneded district from February to March 2016. Data were collected using structured questionnaire by an interviewer. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to identify factors associated with health care seeking behavior. Variables having P value ≤0.2 in the bivariate analysis were considered for multivariable analysis. P-value less than 0.05 was used to declare that there was statistically significant association. Odds Ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to determine the strength and direction of association. A total of 410 mothers participated in this study. Among 48.8% (95% CI: 44, 53.6%) had sought health care, only 27% sought health care within a day. Having awareness of childhood illness (AOR = 3.8, 95% CI: 2.18-6.72), perceived importance of early treatment (AOR = 3.5, 95% CI: 2.00-6.07) and child age