EVALUATION OF THE HEALTH EDUCATION COMPONENT OF DIARROEAL DISEASE CONTROL PROGRAMME AT IGBO-ORA RURAL HEALTH CENTRE

Abstract

Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) is an innovative, inexpensive and effective approach to the treatment of diarrhoea and dehydration. Health education is a major component of an ORT programme. This study was designed to evaluate patient education approach to health education within an ORT Unit. It assesses mothers’ gain and retention of knowledge due to exposure to oral rehydration education and also compare the knowledge of mothers who attended the ORT unit with non-attenders. The study of quasi-experimental design was carried out in Igboora, Oyo State of Nigeria, between October 1986 and December 1986. Mothers who attended the ORT unit were the experimental group while those who did not, served as the control group. After three visits to each home of mothers who attended the ORT unit between its opening on 23rd September 1985 and 30th June 1986 a sample of 124 mothers was found at home and was interviewed. By geographical matching, another sample of 110 mothers with pre-school children was also interviewed and constituted the control group. Baseline data on the attenders was obtained from the records at the ORT unit which included a pre-test and post-test of mothers’ knowledge on diarrhoea control and management. A questionnaire was used for home visit/interview that paralleled the records data in construction. In addition, observation was used to assess mothers’ ability to prepare sugar salt solution (SSS) in the home. The respondents in both experimental and control groups were similar as regards education, age, parity, religion and occupation. Almost all mothers in both experimental and control groups were able to recognise diarrhoea. However, significantly more mothers in the experimental group gained and retained knowledge on danger, prevention, cause, treatment of diarrhoea and appropriate feeding during diarrhoea than the control mothers. More mothers exposed to health education at the ORT unit knew the national standard formula and correctly demonstrated preparation of SSS than did the control counter-parts, who were exposed to different recipes and only a few demonstrated the correct recipe. Knowledge and skill accounted for use in actual episodes of diarrhoea among experimental mothers. This was not the case with the control. About a quarter of mothers in both experimental and control groups had a misconception that SSS stops diarrhoea rather than treats dehydration. Some control mothers expressed concern that ten level teaspoons of sugar in SSS may cause Jedijide, culturally a more serious condition than diarrhoea. The study has demonstrated that by applying an interactive and participatory demonstration approach to patient education, mothers can gain and retain knowledge and skill required to manage episodes of diarrhoea at home. Based on the findings the mother recommends firstly that the health education approach (interaction with participatory demonstration) utilised in the ORT unit can be extended to the antenatal and under-five clinic sessions at the Rural Health Centre, as well as to the community. Secondly, further studies should compare different approaches to SSS/ORT promotion. Specifically, future studies in SSS/ORT should standardize documentation of imput and impact analysis and thereby to enable selection of the best health education methods in ORT.