Abstract
Diarrhoea continues to plaque the developing worldresulting in morbidity of 1.7 billionand mortality of 5.25 lakhsin under- five childrenIn India diarrhea is 3 most common cause of death among under-five children with morbidity of 11.6 million and mortality of 1300 deaths and thus causing 8% of deaths per yearZinc has a major role in prevention of diarrhea. To assess the knowledge and practices of mothers of under-five children regarding zinc supplementation for prevention of childhood diarrhea, to find out the reasons for not supplementing Zinc during diarrhoeal episodes, to find out association between socio-demographic factors and awareness of zinc supplementation. : Hospital based cross sectional analytical study was conducted among 200 mothers of underfive children in outpatient department of Paediatrics of a tertiary care hospital. The data was entered in predesigned semistructured questionnaire. Data was analysed by EPI INFO 7 software. Only 18(9%) mothers were aware about use of Zn supplementation to the under-five children in childhood diarrhoea. Only 10 mothers administered zinc supplementation in childhood diarrhea. Unawareness regarding Zn supplement was common reason mentioned for not giving Zn supplementation. Association was found between religion, type of family and awareness of Zn supplementation. There is a need to increase awareness of mothers regarding zinc supplementation by conducting health education sessions.
Highlights
6 Zinc has associated with 20% reduction of acute diarrhea, 30% reduction in volume of stools, 40% reduction in treatment failure and deaths in persistent diarrhea. 7
In view of all these benefits, Zinc therapy was incorporated in the integrated management of childhood illness guidelines and world health organization (WHO) list of essential drugs for use in diarrhea, in 2005
Ten (56%) mothers were unaware that all episodes of diarrhea should be treated with zinc
Summary
Diarrhoea continues to plaque the developing worldresulting in morbidity of 1.7 billionand mortality of 5.25 lakhsin under- five children. 1,2 In India diarrhea is 3r d most common cause of death among under-five children with morbidity of 11.6 million and mortality of 1300 deaths and causing 8% of deaths per year.[3]. 1,2 In India diarrhea is 3r d most common cause of death among under-five children with morbidity of 11.6 million and mortality of 1300 deaths and causing 8% of deaths per year.[3]. 6 Zinc has associated with 20% reduction of acute diarrhea, 30% reduction in volume of stools, 40% reduction in treatment failure and deaths in persistent diarrhea. 10 Nearly 15 years passed since introduction of zinc in national health programme, still level of awareness was found to be poor among population. The present study was intended to assess awareness among mothers of under-five children regarding zinc supplementation, reasons for not supplementing zinc and to find out socio-demographic factors associated with it
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