Evaluation of parental perception of childhood urinary tract infection in Ondo, Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Urinary tract infection (UTI) is common in children with possible severe complications, deserving public health interventions.
Aims: To evaluate parental perception of symptoms, causes, complication and treatment of childhood UTI, and proposerelevant interventions.
Methods: This is an ethicallyapproved cross-sectional study using a structured questionnaire comprising a 35-item Likert-like scale on perception of UTI in children with a reliability rating of 0.93. Adequate perception of each variable was defined as mean score ≥ 3.0. Weighted mean scores were tested for significant difference using F-test. Multiple logistic regressions identified possible predictors of adequate perception among the participants. P -value <0.05 was considered significant.
Results: Altogether, 600 guardians/ parents took part in the study. Their mean age was 29.8±6.5 years and almost two-thirds of them (62.3%) were females. Only 18.3% of the participants had adequate perception of UTI in children. Their grand mean score on perception of UTI was 2.68 ± 0.52. There was an upward trend in weighted mean scores of the various subscales (F-test = 21.63, p=0.000). Significant predictors of adequate perception of UTI in this survey include female gender (OR=16.72; 95% CI: 5.77-48.43), Hausa ethnicity (OR= 0.02; 95% CI: 0.00-0.17) and polygamous family structure (OR= 2.40; 95% CI: 1.16-4.96).
Conclusion: There was low parental perception of UTI in children in our study setting. Regular health education on childhood urinary tract disorders is recommended.

Key words: urinary tract infection, causes, treatment, outcome, parental perception