KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE, AND PRACTICES TOWARDS ORAL REHYDRATION THERAPY IN THE MANAGEMENT OF DIARRHEA AMONG CARETAKERS OF CHILDREN BELOW 5 YEARS IN SOROTI REGIONAL REFERRAL HOSPITAL SOROTI DISTRICT. A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY.

MARYVIN NEJESA; Vincent  Kalungi

doi:10.51168/sjhrafrica.v4i12.548

Authors

MARYVIN NEJESA Kampala School of Health Sciences, P.O. Box 142633, Kampala, Uganda.
Vincent Kalungi Kampala School of Health Sciences, P.O. Box 142633, Kampala, Uganda.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51168/sjhrafrica.v4i12.548

Keywords:

Knowledge, Attitude, Practices, Oral rehydration Salt, Diarrhea

Abstract

Aim:

The study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices towards oral rehydration salt in managing diarrhea among caretakers of children below 5 years in Soroti Regional Referral Hospital, Soroti district.

Methodology:

The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional study design with a simple random sampling technique. Data was extracted from a sample of 60 respondents using semi-structured questionnaires written in the English language and analyzed manually using tally sheets, entered in the Excel computer program to generate graphs, tables, and pie charts.

Results:

All (100%) of the respondents had heard of diarrhea, a majority ( 95%) of the respondents knew how to define diarrhea, most ( 63%) of the respondents reported poor hygiene as the major cause of diarrhea, and a majority (94%) of the respondents had heard of ORT, a majority ( 87%) of the respondents obtained their information on ORT from medical workers, most (69%) of the respondents could not detect a dehydrated child.

Almost all (98%) of the respondents believed that diarrhea is a serious condition and the majority (73.3%) of the respondents thought ORT is good for managing diarrhea in children below 5 years. Most (40%) of the respondents did not continue to breastfeed their children, most (47%) gave solid foods to their children, only (58%) gave ORS in treatment of diarrhea, and only (42%) said they took their children to the health facility.

Conclusion:

Caretakers exhibited pleasant knowledge and study aimed at the management of diarrhea but poor practices were noticed which exposed their children to the effects of diarrhea for example dehydration and malnutrition.

Recommendations:

Soroti Regional Referral Hospital should intensively educate the caretakers on the importance of initiating the children on ORT in time, as it will help prevent the effects of diarrhea like dehydration and malnutrition.