Home management of childhood febrile illnesses in a rural community in Nigeria

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Abstract
To assess the care given to febrile children under 5 years old at home prior to attending health facility. Cross sectional design. Outpatient clinic of a government health facility. Two hundred mothers who brought their sick children to the outpatient department were interviewed. The ages of mothers ranged from 15 to 50 years (mean of 26.2 years). Most of them had formal education although below grade 12. Only 12.5% of them were full-time housewives. Others were engaged in self-employed occupations. Fifty-one percent of the children were females. Their ages ranged between 6 months and 5 years with a mean of 2.6 years. Over 60% of the children were suffering from symptoms of acute respiratory infections while 28% had symptoms of malaria. There was no significant difference between mothers' diagnosis and researchers' diagnosis (chi(2) = 0.199, P < 0.05). The duration of children's illnesses spanned from 1 to 60 days (mean of 4.8 days). Only one mother reported at the clinic within 24 h of the onset of the child's illness. Eighty-one percent had taken action before coming to clinic. They had used combinations of drugs namely antipyretics, antimalarials and antibiotics. The average amount spent on drugs was US$0.57. These drugs were purchased at local medicine stores. The findings indicate home use of drugs that were not prescribed by health professionals. There is therefore a strong need to give appropriate education and counselling to mothers/care givers and medicine vendors on early detection and proper home management of febrile illnesses.