Knowledge of Mothers Regarding Oral Rehydration Therapy

Abstract

Objective: To determine the knowledge of mothers regarding the oral rehydration therapy in children with acute watery diarrhea.

Study Design: Cross sectional study

Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at the Pediatric Department, Divisional Headquarter teaching Hospital Mirpur AJK over a period of 6 months from Dec, 2020 to May, 2021.

Materials and Methods: 215 mothers along with their children were included though emergency/OPD of pediatric department. Mothers were asked about the knowledge regarding rehydration of their child while having acute watery diarrhea and about oral rehydration solution. A predesigned questionnaire was used to collect the information about knowledge of mothers. Data was analyzed using SPSS v. 22.

Results: The mean age of mothers was 31.20 ± 6.63 years. The mean age of children was 3.86 ± 3.71 years. There were 17 (7.9%) mothers who were post-graduate, 42 (19.5%) were graduate, 49 (22.8%) and education up to matric or intermediate, 72 (33.5%) were middle or primary pass while 35 (16.3%) mothers were illiterate. There were 179 (83.3%) mothers who had good knowledge of oral rehydration solution while 36 (16.7%) had poor knowledge of use of oral rehydration solution.

Conclusion: Thus, it has been observed that there are >80% mothers who are aware of use and benefits of oral rehydration solution.