A study to determine knowledge, attitude and practice of mothers and caretakers towards home mangement of fever due to malaria among children under the age of five years in chongwe district.

Abstract

This study sought at determining The knowledge, attitude and practice of mothers and care takers towards management of fever due to malaria among under five children in Chongwe District. Malaria still continues to rank number one as the main cause of morbidity, admissions and mortality rate. There are various factors that influence home management of fever due to malaria by mother and care takers, for example socio economic factors which include poverty, poor health seeking behaviour, cultural beliefs, age of mother or caretaker, inadequate knowledge on management of malaria as well as inadequate education.There are also disease related factors and these are repeated attacks of fever, high incidence of fever due to malaria and that fever is not regarded as a danger sign. Literature review was done covering the global, regional and national perspectives to show the magnitude of fever due to malaria. In Zambia, malaria is among the top ten (10) causes of morbidity and mortality, and it has been included as one of "thrusts" which has increased the disease burden in Zambia. A descriptive, cross sectional study was conducted in September, 2006 in Chongwe District of Lusaka Province of Zambia where 50 mothers and care takers bringing their under five children to the clinic with fever due to malaria were randomly sampled from Chongwe and Chalimbana Rural Health Centres. A structured interview schedule was used as a data collection tool. The questionnaire was checked for completeness by conducting a pilot study Monday 4th September 2006. Data analysis was done manually using data master sheet and a scientific calculator. The study revealed that 76% of respondents had high levels of knowledge, 14% had moderate levels of knowledge while 10% had low levels of knowledge on home management of fever due to malaria. The study also revealed that 62% of the respondents had negative attitude towards management of fever due to malaria among under five children.