Caregiver's acceptability of zinc tablet for treatment of childhood diarrhea in rural and urban communities

Background: Zinc supplementation is a simple and affordable strategy for managing acute diarrhoea and preventing subsequent growth faltering and malnutrition. It has been shown that ORS and supplemental zinc, combined with continued feeding are the recommended interventions for treating diarrhoea among children. Objective: To determine the knowledge and acceptability of Zinc tablets in treatment of childhood dirrhoea. Materials and Methods: A comparative cross-sectional design was used. Data was analysed at univariate, bivariate and multivariate level using SPSS version 20. Results: Knowledge of caregivers about zinc treatment was found to be fair (40.4%) in both settings; up to 136 (45.0%) of the respondents had good knowledge. Over a half 84 (56.0%) of caregivers in the urban community compared to a quarter 52 (34.2%) of those in the rural community had good knowledge. This difference was statistically significant between urban and rural caregivers (P < 0.00). Up to 180 (81.1%) of the caregivers that have used zinc had good level of acceptability. Respondent's level of acceptability of zinc was similar in the urban 98 (81.7%) and rural communities 82(80.4%) respectively. Conclusion: There exist a wide gap between knowledge of zinc supplementation and its acceptability among caregivers and health education should be tailored to address the knowledge gaps of mothers and target women who are more at risk of poor practice.