Socio-Demographic Factors And Knowledge Influencing Associated With ORS Use For Diarrhoea In Children At Miathene Sublocation, Meru County, Kenya

Abstract

Oral rehydration solution is the gold standard treatment option in childhood diarrhoea though there are other practices like use of rice water, water sugar mixtures, continuous breast feeding for under six months and complementary feeding have management well dehydration due to diarrhoea. The study adopted mixed methods for data collection and 301 caregivers were interviewed and data analyzed using SPSS version 25. Bivariate analysis was conducted to examine possible associations between predictor variables and ORS uptake. This was done using Pearson’s Chi Square. Association was considered significant when p-value is less than 0.05. Results indicated that children average age was 28.44. About 50.2% of the respondents utilized oral rehydration solution, the utilization was significantly associated with socio-demographic variables such as age with (p-value =0.018), marital status (p-value =0.001), level of education (p=0.015), monthly income (p=0.046); caretaker’s variables such knowledge on how ORS is given (p=0.0001), amount oral rehydration solution given to child (p=0.011) and uses of oral rehydration solution (p=0.036), therefore, policy makers need to advice the government on different approaches to diarrhea management, which involves use of oral rehydration solution packets. Efforts are needed to incorporate herbalists into diarrhea case management programs so that they can also promote the use of oral rehydration solution for prevention of dehydration from diarrhea.