Childhood Fever Knowledge and Management: A Case of Mothers with Children under Five Years

Abstract

Background: Most childhood ailments often present with fever which account for the most common reasons why parents seek medical care for their children; particularly, the under-five children. The study aimed to assess the mothers’ knowledge of fever in their under-five children and how this is managed at home. Methods: This was a descriptive designed study that used a simple random sampling technique to select 100 participants who were mothers of under-five children who presented to the Kwahu Government Hospital, Atibie over a period of six months. A structured questionnaire comprising of close-ended questions were used to collect data. Both secondary and primary data were collected and analyzed. The primary data was analyzed using SPSS version 16.0. Results: The mothers described fever as hotness of body (63%), shivering (10%), child crying (8%), child being quiet (8%) and sleeping too often (10%). More than half of the respondents (57%) correctly identified the cause of fever as malaria (39%) and infections (18%). Home management of fever involved self-medications (43%), consulting herbalist (20%) as well as tepid sponging (28%) and visiting nearby hospital (62%). Mothers knowledge of childhood fever was statistically significantly associated with their age (p = 0.0001), age of the child (p = 0.04), number of children in a family (p = 0.0001), and level of education of the mothers (p = 0.0001). Conclusions: Mothers described hotness of the body as fever and knew that malaria and infections causes fever among children. They consulted herbalist among other inappropriate practices in the management of fever.