Treatment Seeking Behavior of Mothers in the Management of Acute Respiratory Infections in Bauchi State, Nigeria

Childhood pneumonia is generally curable if trained health workers promptly administer the correct antibiotic treatment. Lot quality assurance sampling (LQAS) survey was used to investigate the health-seeking behavior of... [ view full abstract ]

Childhood pneumonia is generally curable if trained health workers promptly administer the correct antibiotic treatment. Lot quality assurance sampling (LQAS) survey was used to investigate the health-seeking behavior of mothers of children less than five years old who had suffered from a respiratory infection two weeks before the survey was conducted.

Data from three (2012, 2013 and 2015) waves of LQAS were used for this exploration. Responding households were sampled using a rigorous multistage random sampling of 19 LQAS locations in the 20 Local Government Areas in Bauchi state. From a compiled list of households in the sampled locations, 19 households were selected through a systematic random sampling technique totaling of 380 households in each of the three survey years.

Descriptive analyses were performed using purposefully preprogrammed Microsoft Excel worksheet and STATA© (Version 12). For the baseline, follow-up and end-line surveys, we estimated and compared the average coverage of the indicator for the LGAs with an acceptable level of statistical errors of α ≤ 5%, and β ≤20%.

The result indicated that the coverage level of health seeking behavior indicators for cough with fever mostly decreased. In 2015 LQAS, 66.9% (95% CI: 64.2%, 69.9%) mothers interviewed, reported that they had sought treatment for their child’s respiratory illness. This was significantly lower than that of mothers who sought treatment in 2013, 73.8% (95% CI: 70.6%, 77%). About a third of mothers of children with cough accompanied with fevers i.e. 35% (n=380) sought treatment the same or next day they identified the illness.

In conclusion, we have used data from three waves of LQAS to study health-seeking behaviors of caregivers in management of acute respiratory. Future studies need to examine specific assets and challenges influencing caregivers’ treatment-seeking behaviours in order to positively influence decision-making at the household level.