Mothers and childhood pneumonia: What should the focus of public campaigns be?

Abstract

Background: Prompt administration of antibiotics to children with pneumonia significantly reduces the probability of death. However this requires early identification of such children in the community.
In a country such as Nigeria with one of the highest pneumoniarelated
deaths, what do mothers know about pneumonia, and what should be the content of public campaign messages?
Methods: A structured questionnaire was administered to mothers  attending paediatric clinics of Lagos University Teaching Hospital seeking
their knowledge about the definition, causes, risk factors and symptoms
of childhood pneumonia.
Results: One hundred and seven (107) consecutive mothers participated
in the study. The majority (97; 90.6%) had at least secondary education,
were married (96; 89.7%) and professed to be either Christians
or Muslims (105; 98.1%). Prior to the study, 16 (15%) had not
heard about pneumonia. About half of the participants correctly identified
fast/difficult breathing as suggestive of pneumonia. Threequarters
reported exposure to cold as the cause of childhood pneumonia. Minimizing exposure to cold and wearing warm clothes were the
two commonest reported ways of preventing pneumonia (75.8% and
49.5% of the mothers respectively); in contrast hand washing, exclusive
breastfeeding and limiting exposure to sick persons with cough and catarrh
were the least mentioned. The proportion of mothers who correctly
identified fast/difficult breathing as suggestive of pneumonia
was similar irrespective of educational status or source of pneumonia
information.
Conclusion: Mothers’ knowledge of childhood pneumonia is low. Public
campaigns on pneumonia should focus on raising awareness about
germs as cause of pneumonia, immunization, hand washing and exclusive
breastfeeding as potent preventive strategies and fast/difficult breathing as a feature of pneumonia.