Mother’s Health Seeking Behavior During Childhood illness in Northeast India: Findings of National Family Health Survey 4 (2015-16)

Abstract

The latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) report reflects the current health condition of the countryand its states as well as.Based on these findings this review carried out to highlight the mother’s healthseeking behaviours during childhood illness for the North-eastern states of India along with existing healthprograms catering to maternal and child health.Overall 60 percent of the children aged under five (U-5) werereceived any advice or treatment for Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) from a health provider in NortheastIndia. Nearly 20 percent of the children with fever were given antibiotic drug and only 1 percent of themwere given antimalarial drug. Meghalaya is the only North-eastern state were the maximum incidence (12%)of diarrhoea has been observed while least was seen in Sikkim (2%). The lack of basic amenities is directlyor indirectly responsible for the high burden of childhood morbidities in this region. Also, poor and unequaldistribution of maternal health seeking behaviours for their children were observed to all the North-easternstates of India. A huge proportion of children are still lagging behind from the adequate advices or treatmentsdue to various reasons like, poor quality of care and the lake of government health facility in the area, healthpersonnel were often absent from government health facilities and the major problem was the distance to ahealth facility specially in rural areas.