Home-care management practices of diarrhea in selected barangays of Iloilo City

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the home-care management practices of diarrhea among the caretakers in selected areas of Iloilo City. It was also the object of this study to determine the selected characteristics of respondents and their level of knowledge about diarrhea and whether these variables are related to their home-care management practices. It was hypothesized that selected characteristics and knowledge of caretakers about diarrhea are associated with their home-care management practices.

The investigation made use of the descriptive research method employing a one-shot survey design. A total of 135 caretakers were the subjects/respondents of the study. The data of this research were gathered through structured interviews with the caretakers. Subsequently, the obtained data were processed through SPSS+PC Windows Version 6 and were statistically tested using frequency percentages, appropriate measures of central tendency, Pearson’s r Moment Coefficient of Correlations, Cramer’s V, Phi and Eta coefficients of association.

The study revealed that the respondents who were caretakers of children 0 to 5 years of age are mostly in their late twenties, non-working and high school educated. In general, the caretakers are highly knowledgeable about the different concepts of diarrhea. However, it was found out that most of them had poor feeding practices of their children, although there are some who had maintained fluid intake and referral to health facilities.

The study also found out that there is a significant correlation between the age of the respondents and their knowledge about home-care management practices. However, when knowledge scores were treated as a whole in all aspects, the result showed that age is not related to knowledge about diarrhea. Furthermore, the findings also revealed that feeding practices are affected by the knowledge of the caretakers about diarrhea. On the other hand, age and educational attainment of the caretakers are also associated with their feeding practices when the child has diarrhea.

With the significant findings and results of this study, the researcher strongly recommends to the Department of Health to take into consideration the personal characteristics of the caretakers such as age and educational attainment when educating them about care of children with diarrhea. This investigation revealed that these two variables influence knowledge and home-care management practices of caretakers whose children were sick of diarrhea.