Child Caregiver’s healthcare seeking behavior and its determinants for common childhood illnesses in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: a community-based study

Abstract

Background Appropriate healthcare-seeking behavior and access to the health care facility is key to improving health service utilization. Although the accessibility of comprehensive childhood disease intervention services in Ethiopia has been modified at the community level, the use of such health care services has remained limited. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the healthcare-seeking behavior of common childhood illness and its determinants. Methods A community-based cross-sectional study design was used. A multi-stage sampling method was used to recruit eight hundred and thirty-four study participants. A pre-tested and standardized questionnaire was used to collect data. The collected data were visually checked for incompleteness and entered into the statistical software Epi-info version 7 and exported to SPSS version 20 software for descriptive and bi-variable analysis. To identify variables associated with the healthcare-seeking behavior. Logistic regression analysis was performed. Adjusted odds ratios with a 95% confidence interval were used to see the strength of association, and variables with P-values of < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results The proportion of health care seeking behavior of care-givers for childhood illness was 69.5% (95% CI, 66.4, 72.4%). The education level of caregiver (AOR: 1.61, 95% CI: 1.01–2.60), knowledge of childhood illness (AOR: 2.02, 95% CI: 1.46–2.79), cough (AOR: 1.94, 95% CI: 1.39–2.71) and diarrhea (AOR: 2.09, 95% CI: 1.46–2.99) as main symptoms of illness and perceived severity of illness (AOR:3.12, 95% CI: 2.22–4.40) were significantly associated with healthcare-seeking behaviors of caregivers. Conclusion Low healthcare-seeking behavior was observed for childhood illnesses. Educational level, knowledge of childhood illness, cough, and diarrhea as primary symptoms of illness, and perceived severity of caregiver illness were significant associated with healthcare-seeking behavior. Therefore, interventions that strengthen the caregiver’s awareness of childhood illness and danger signs need to be considered. Besides, addressing the identified associated variables to healthcare-seeking behavior is critically important to curb the problem.

Level of Mothers’/Caregivers’ Healthcare-Seeking Behavior for Child’s Diarrhea, Fever, and Respiratory Tract Infections and Associated Factors in Ethiopia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Based on the study setting, three of the studies were conducted in Addis Ababa [ 11 , 17 , 21 ], two in the Tigray region [ 18 , 42 ], seven in the Amhara region [ 20 , 22 , 23 , 25 – 27 , 37 ], seven in the Oromia region [ 15 , 32 – 35 , 38 , 43 ], one in the SNNP region [ 24 ], one in the Benishangul region [ 39 ], and four were conducted nationwide [ 16 , 36 , 40 , 41 ]. Regarding the illness category, fifteen studies were conducted by including all the three childhood diarrhea, fever, and respiratory tract infections at the same time [ 15 , 17 , 20 – 25 , 27 , 32 , 33 , 36 – 38 , 42 ], four were for diarrhea only [ 18 , 21 , 26 , 43 ], three were for fever only [ 34 , 35 , 39 ], and three were for ARI only [ 16 , 40 , 41 ] ( Table 1 ).…”

“…Of the 25 studies, 19 have factors associated with mothers' health-seeking behavior. Twelve studies identified factors for three illnesses [ 11 , 15 , 17 , 19 , 20 , 23 – 25 , 27 , 36 – 38 ], four for diarrhea [ 18 , 21 , 26 , 43 ], two for fever [ 35 , 39 ], and one for ARI [ 16 ] ( Table 2 ).…”

“…In studies conducted in various countries, residence, severity of illness, caregiver education level, gender, socioeconomic status, cost of healthcare, knowledge of caregiver/mother for childhood illness, and perceived severity of illness were found to be common contributing factors for healthcare-seeking behavior [ 10 , 12 , 13 , 17 , 25 ].…”

“…Although Ethiopia has implemented many strategies and has universal access to improve standard management of childhood diarrhea, fever, and respiratory tract infections, the modern care-seeking behavior of caregivers for childhood illnesses remains low [ 17 ]. However, despite these efforts to promote child health, many mothers or caregivers do not seek medical care for their children [ 11 ].…”

“…The magnitude of a mother's healthcare-seeking behavior for their childhood illness is different across countries and its regions [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. A study conducted in developing countries showed that about 73.0% of caregivers sought care from a healthcare provider when their child was suffering from diarrhea, malaria, or pneumonia, with a median of 44.9% seeking care from appropriate providers.…”