Pattern of health seeking behaviour of mothers for common childhood illnesses in Enugu metropolis south east zone Nigeria

Abstract

TheObjective of the study is to assess the Health Seeking Behaviour ofmotherswhen their children presentwith the common aliments and their preferred treatment options. A cross sectional survey of 300 women that brought their children for routine immunization and growthmonitoring to three health institutions in Enugumetropolis was carried out using an interviewer administered structured questionnaire. Majority of the mothers, 208(69.3%) used self treatment for their children at home when they presented with common illnesses.Atotal of 146(48.7%) made use of government health institutions, 117(39. 0%) attended private health institutions while 21(7.0%) consulted an elder woman and 9 (.0%) patronized prayer house.Only 3(1%) respondents sought the help of traditional healers. In this study, the greater percentage of mothers used self medication for treatment of common childhood illnesses.The implication of this is that themajority of themothersmay not know the right treatment to institute at any point in time. This situation could lead to more complications of the illnesses or even loss of life.As a result,mothers should be educated on how best to take care of their sick children athome and be able to recognizewhen to seek appropriate help.

Keywords: Health SeekingBehavior,Mothers,CommonChildhood Illnesses