Knowledge on management of fever among mothers of undertens in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

Abstract

To explore on mothers' knowledge on fever and its management as well as assess treatment received by under 10 year-old children (undertens) having fever prior to being presented in outpatient departments at two Municipal hospitals. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire interviews among mothers of undertens, who had problems of fever and presented at the two Municipal hospitals viz. Mwananyamala and Temeke Municipal hospitals, in Dar es Salaam. A total of 301 respondents were interviewed. Of those, 151 had male and 150 and female undertens, whose ages ranged from 1 month to 10 years-old with median of 2 years. Minority (32%) of the interviewees were unaware of possible causes of fever, while 52% attributed it to malaria. About 25% of the respondents regard fever as a minor health problem, thus they did not seek medical attention unless other severe symptoms were manifested. Majority (88.4%) of the respondents self-medicated, and out of those 24% used antimalarials and antipyretics, while 7.6% used both antipyretics and antibiotics for alleviation of fever. On arrival in OPDs, only 62.4% of the respondents were prescribed with antimalarial agents. Approximately 18% of the interviewees admitted to have had changed medications due to unresponsiveness to the previously prescribed drugs. Pharmacies were the main sources of the self-medicated drugs (n = 272; 90.4%). Fever is a public health concern among undertens, which contributed to high rate of self-medication and irrational use of medicines. However, respondents demonstrated adequate knowledge on fever and on its management though fever was associated with underlying causes.