Abstract:
Diarrhea has been the major source of illnesses and deaths among children in many third world countries. Care given at home has remained the best remedy for acute diarrhea for children below five years. Despite the health worker’s efforts to educate mothers and caregivers on prevention and management of diarrhea and on improving quality of life for children attending pediatric outpatient clinic (POPC) and Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) programs, there has been increasing trends in the number of children presenting in the clinics with diarrhea and related complications including dehydration. Similarly, there has been increase in number of children who were brought to the health facility with complications of diarrhea due to delayed seeking of health care services. The purpose of the study was to establish the determinants of home management of diarrhea among caregivers of children below five years in Ngandu location in Nyeri County. The study used descriptive cross sectional study design. It was conducted in Ngandu location in Nyeri County. Cochran's Formula was used to arrive at a sample size of 345. A Researcher- administered semi-structured questionnaire and checklist were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and binary logistic regression analysis were conducted with the help of SPSS.Findings showed that Slightly above half 52.2% (n=180) had low knowledge on management of diarrhea while 67.1% (n=231) of the respondents had poor practices in regards to home management of diarrhea. There was a significant relationship (χ2 =7.340, df=1, p=0.0<0.05, OR=2.4) between respondent’s’ age and practice of home management of diarrhea. There was also a significant relationship (χ2 =62.413, df=1, p=0.0<0.05, OR=3.4) between knowledge and practices of diarrhea and management of diarrhea. Knowledge (p<0.05) remained significant in the multiple regression analysis. Conclusion of the study revealed that there was low knowledge and poor practice of management of diarrhea, there was a relationship between knowledge and home management of diarrhoea among caregivers of children below five years in Ngandu location in Nyeri County. The study Recommended enhanced education of mothers by community health workers on causes, signs and symptoms of diarrhea and on preparation and administration of ORS as part of home management of diarrhea
