Awareness of Mothers about Diarrhea; A Cross Sectional Comparative Study Focusing on Consciousness of Diarrhea among Different Socioeconomic Classes in Pakistan

Objective: The objective of this study was to access the knowledge of mothers belonging to low and middle socio economic groupsconcerning diarrheal disease in Pakistan. Methodology: This was an observational, comparative study done for three months using convenient sampling technique. The mothers of the admitted children in paediatric wards or coming to the paediatric OPD of Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore having at least one child under the age of 5 years and the presenting complaint of the child was diarrhea were included in the study.The duration of study was from 19 April 2015 to 28 July 2015. The calculated sample size was 268.The mothers who did not give consent were excluded from the study.The demographics data includedage of the child, sex, number of sibling, residence (urban / rural), education and profession of father and mother and socioeconomic status. The family having monthly income between ten to twenty thousand rupees in a month was classified to have low socioeconomic status and with twenty to thirty thousand as middle socioeconomic status. They were divided into equal groups according to the socio economic status having 138 mothers in each group. Awareness about diarrhea and its causes, signs of dehydration, importance and preparation of ORS were also documented. Data was analyzed through SPSS version 20. Chi square test was used to evaluate the significance. Results: In total of 268 mothers the mean age of their children that belong to low socioeconomic class was 2.2±1.34 years, and mean weight recorded was 11.7±3.93kg while those that belong to middle socioeconomic class it was 2.4±1.53 years and 12.9±4.33 kg. Our study showed that 81(60.4%) of mothers in group A prefer ORS to give their child, 25(18.7%) give boiled rice, 28(20.9%) prefer to give other soft diet to their children. However, mothers from group B, 90(67%) prefer to give ORS, 25(18.7%) give boiled rice while 19(14.2%) mother prefer to give other soft diet. The adequate level of knowledge regarding ORS was found to be present in 123(91.8%) in group A and 134(100%) in group B, with a significant p-value of 0.001. However it was found that the knowledge about the causes of diarrhea was similar in both the groups. Conclusion: This study concluded that knowledge about control of diarrheal disease is quite unappreciative especially in mothers of low socioeconomic group. Poverty, illiteracy, improper sanitation facilities, unhygienic practices and use of impure water is dragging the health indicators down and increasing the burden of diarrheal diseases on health resources.