Md. Akhtar-Uz-Zaman1, Khaled Ahmad2, Rifat Jahan3, Mashrur Haque4, Shamrat Adnan Chy5, Saber Ahmed Shimul6
1. Associate Professor (CC), Department of Community Medicine, North East Medical College, Sylhet
2. Assistant Professor, Department of ENT, North East Medical College, Sylhet
3. Assistant Professor and Head, Department of Community Medicine, Parkview Medical College, Sylhet
4. Assistant Professor, Department of Anatomy, North East Medical College, Sylhet
5. Senior Lecturer, Department of Community Medicine, North East Medical College, Sylhet
6. Lecturer, Department of Community Medicine, North East Medical College, Sylhet
Abstract
Pneumonia is an infection of one or both of the lings caused by bacteria, viruses, or fungi. Lobar pneumonia affects one or more sections (lobes) of the lungs. It was a descriptive cross sectional study conducted among 285 mothers of children under five years of age in selected rural areas in Sylhet District during the period of January to December 2016, to determine the behavior of rural mothers seeking healthcare for pneumonia. The interview of respondents was performed by using the semi-structured questionnaire. Majority (47.7%) of the respondents were in age group 26-30 years with mean age 26.51 (SD of ±3.74) years. Maximum mothers (46.7%) had education class 6 to class 10. Majority (27.7%) of the respondents had monthly family income up to 10,000 taka, mean monthly income 29535.1 taka with SD=±21600,946, minimum and maximum income were 4000.0 and 80000.0 taka respectively Fever were described by 100% as the common symptoms of pneumonia 85.6 consulted with doctor and 68.4% preferred to visit pharmacy drug seller. Majority 86.3% rubbed hot oil in chest and back of the child, rest of them, gave tulsi leaves juice, black tea with ginger, honey, feed the child frequently and fewer portion of respondents (0.7%) gave lemon juice to child when her child had simple cough or cold Most (97.1%) of the respondents mentioned cold food/drink as the causes of pneumonia and 41.8% stated the presence of organism as the causative agent. In this study, healthcare seeking behavior was found to be associated with total monthly family income (P=0.014) and age (P=0.021) of the respondents. Most of the rural mothers did not have knowledge about severity of childhood pneumonia.
Key Words: Healthcare, Seeking behavior, Pneumonia, Rural Mothers