Assessment of Maternal Strategies in the Prevention of Under-Five's Diarrhoea in Two Selected Communities in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.

Introduction: Diarrhoea disease is one of the commonest under-five children's diseases with increasing prevalence rate in our communities. Complication of the disease may lead to death however; the diseases as well as its complications are preventable when proper measures are put in place by the mothers of under-five children. Objective: The study was designed to assess maternal strategies in the prevention of under-five's diarrhoea in two selected communities in Ibadan. Methods: Community based descriptive design was adopted. Study population included 246 mothers of under-five in the two communities. Data on patient's demographic characteristics, mother's knowledge about diarrhoea and maternal strategies in diarrhoea prevention were recorded using structured questionnaire. The data was analysed using descriptive analysis and Chi-square was used to test the set hypotheses. Results: Mean age of the 243 mothers, who participated in the study is 30 years (± SD 6.4). Overall, 89.3% of mothers had adequate knowledge of diarrhoea; however, there were deficiencies in some areas, 71.6% of mothers acknowledged teething as causes of diarrhoea, 39.9% and 33.3% did not know that rotavirus vaccine and exclusive breast feeding may reduce diarrhoea incidence respectively. In addition, 55.6% of participants' children had incidence of diarrhoea. Also, 94.2% of mothers had appropriate maternal strategies in the prevention of diarrhoea. Mothers always practice exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life (62.6%) and always wash hands with soap and water (68.3%). Only 11.5% mothers received rotavirus vaccine. Conclusion: The study findings indicated low uptake of rotavirus vaccine and high incidence of diarrhoea among the respondent's children. Therefore, effort should be made to provide information about rotavirus vaccine and prevention of diarrhoea disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]