Family Medicine & Medical Science Research
Open Access

Abstract

Health Care Seeking Behavior of Mothers for Common Childhood Illness and Associated Factors in Woldia Town Administration, Northeast Ethiopia

Desale Demelash, Toyeb Yasine* and Wondwosen Mebratu

Background: Early detection and immediate health care seeking practice of care is an important step towards increasing child survival and reducing mortality. Many child deaths are attributed to delay in seeking care and child mortality is still insufficient progress. Despite the great potential of health seeking behavior of mothers for common childhood illness in reducing child morbidity and mortality, its status is not well known in the study area. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess mothers’/care givers health care seeking behavior and its associated factors for childhood illnesses in Woldia town administrative 2019.

Methods: A community based cross-sectional study design was done on a sample of 662 mothers/caregivers from February 28 to March 28,2019. simple random sampling method was used for sample selection. Data was entered using Epidata Version 3.1 and transfer to SPSS version 20 software for analyses. Binary logistics regression model was used to identify factors associated with the dependent variable. Adjusted odds ratio with p-value <0.05 and 95% confidence interval was used to show the strength of association.

Result: A total of 662 mothers/caregivers were included in the analysis and response rate was 98.6%. Among these, 399 (60.27%) of mothers were sought health care from health facilities. Currently married women [AOR=1.92, 95% CI (1.14,3.22)], exposure to mass media [AOR=5.56; 95% C I (3.34,9.26)], perceived severity of illness [AOR=4.24, 95% CI (2.80,6.43)], employed mother/care giver [AOR=1.96,95% CI (1.13,3.38)] were more likely to sought health care for their children as compared to their counterparts.

Conclusion: More than half of the mothers/caregivers sought medical care for their children at the time of illness in the study area. Marital status, occupational status, exposure to mass media, perceived severity of illness, type of symptom reported were determinant factors of health care seeking behavior.

Published Date: 2020-10-14; Received Date: 2020-08-19