A Study on Knowledge Attitude and Practice on Oral Rehydration Therapy Among Mothers of Under-Five Years Old Children in Diarrhea

Background:The major health problems encountered in childhood are acute diarrhoeal diseases.Diarrhoea is defined as the passage of three or more loose or liquid stools per day.Treatment options such as oral rehydration solution (ORS)/oral rehydration therapy (ORT) and zinc treatment.Oral Rehydration Therapy is a type of fluid replacement therapy is mainly used to prevent or treat diarrhea. Aim and objectives:To examine the knowledge, attitude, and practices on oral rehydration therapy among mothers of under-five children.To find the association between the knowledge, attitude and practices with selected demographic variables Materials and Methods:A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among mothers of under-five years age children during the period of March to August 2023.Data were collected using a pre-structured questionnaire and analysed using SPSS version 23.0 software.Descriptive statistics including frequencies, mean, standard deviation and percentages were used to summarize the data.Results: An effective technique for preventing dehydration in children experiencing diarrheal episodes is the use of oral rehydration therapy.This study reveals that 78.5% of mothers have adequate knowledge on ORT.But only 42% of mothers had good practice on ORT.Though study respondents have adequate knowledge and the better attitude, their practice of oral rehydration therapy were lacking. Conclusion:Good knowledge and attitude regarding diarrhoea prevention and management among our study population did not translate to good practice.These could also be due to the lower knowledge about management of diarrhoea.The gaps between knowledge, attitude and practices among the mothers need to be addressed.