Maternal knowledge, attitude and practices towards diarrhea and oral rehydration therapy in rural Maharashtra

Abstract

Objective: A cross sectional hospital based survey was undertaken in rural area of Wardha District of Maharashtra, to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of mothers regarding diarrhea and oral rehydration therapy.

Methods: 75 mothers of under-five children participated [corrected] in the study. They were interviewed by an interviewer using a pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire.

Results: 69.3% of them had a per-capita income of less than rupees 500 [corrected]. 68% of mothers knew the correct definition of diarrhea but only 5.3% of them were aware that diarrhea leads to dehydration [corrected]. 90.7% of mothers were aware of ORT and ORS was easily available to the majority, but only 60% of mothers [corrected] practiced ORT. Nearly 1/3rd of mothers were mixing ORS in the wrong fluid. Nearly half of the mothers were not practicing adequate hand washing, 32% were using feeding bottles [corrected].

Conclusion: The maternal knowledge towards diarrhea and ORS was inadequate in the population studied [corrected] and there was a big gap between actual and desired practices.