Factors Associated with Child Health Card Holding among Mothers of Western Rural Nepal: A Cross Sectional Community Based Study

Abstract

The use of Child Health Card (CHC) has been found effective to assess overall health status of children worldwide. The tool is simple, cost-effective and easy to use yet standard enough to interpret. Nepal recently made contextual modifications in 2006 and has incorporated it into the Health Management Information System. The card is issued to all children during their first visit for immunization. In Nepal, CHC is considered a valid and authentic report for immunization but little has been studied about its holding. The objective of our study was to find its retention rate along with the factors associated. A community-based cross-sectional study was carried out in 10 village development committees of Kapilvastu district between November 15 and December 15, 2010. A total of 190 households were selected using lot quality assurance sampling technique. Higher retention rate (88.9%) of CHC was found while status of complete immunization was significantly associated with its retention [adjusted OR: 41.92, (95%CI; 2.66-658), p=0.008] after adjusting for growth monitoring, ethnicity, place of delivery, antenatal visit, breastfeeding and mother's age. This study can guide the health system and the family members the measures to sustain higher coverage and retention of CHC which can further guide to the best possible health outcomes for the child.

Growth monitoring and promotion practices among health workers may be suboptimal despite high knowledge scores

“…The booklet is a document capturing necessary health information about children and their families. The content of the booklet has been found effective in assessing the overall health status of children worldwide [9].…”

Prevalence and factors associated with child health record book utilization among parents attending government health clinics in Putrajaya, Malaysia

“…This study found that 36.1% of the sample had met the criteria for optimal utilization of the child health record—reading all sections and making entries. The proportion is low but difficult to compare with studies from developing countries where proportion of optimum usage was defined by possession, ownership or holding of the child book (Bhandari et al, 2013; Gazi et al, 2004; Kawakatsu et al, 2015; Lakhani et al, 1984; Mukanga & Kiguli, 2006; Osaki et al, 2015; Pahari et al, 2011) and reported to be between 41% and 89%. Additionally, research on the proportion of optimum usage in developed countries was defined as recording and reading the book and reported a higher range of utilization between 63% and 78% (Jeffs et al, 1994; Wright & Reynolds, 2006).…”

“…The factors associated with child health record book utilization include the mother's level of education and antenatal history, socio‐economic status, child age, co‐morbid status, immunization and nutritional status, roles of healthcare providers and levels of knowledge regarding the child health record book and general child health (Bhandari et al, 2013; Mukanga & Kiguli, 2006; Pahari et al, 2011; Palombo et al, 2014; Vieira et al, 2017).…”

“…The proportion of parents reported to use home‐based child health records globally varies widely between 20% and 80% (Brown & Gacic‐Dobo, 2015). Most studies in developing countries define utilization only as possession, holding and retention (Bhandari et al, 2013; Brown et al, 2018; Kawakatsu et al, 2015; Mukanga & Kiguli, 2006; Pahari et al, 2011), whereas studies in developed countries have assessed reading or recording a comment in the book as part of their evaluation on the utilization (Jeffs et al, 1994; Volkmer et al, 1993; Walton & Bedford, 2007).…”

Completeness of patient-held records: observations of the Road-to-Health Booklet from two national facility-based surveys at 6 weeks postpartum, South Africa

“…Similarly, Senanayake et al in a study conducted in Sri Lanka showed that mothers with a mean age of 28.6 years, education level above grade 8 and a birth order greater than three demonstrated good comprehension of their child’s growth pattern and growth chart [ 18 ] Our findings show that almost all mothers or caregivers presenting at the clinic with their infant possessed a RtHB (at least 99% in all surveys). High rates of possession of RtHB have been previously reported in studies conducted in Zimbabwe, Tanzania and India [ 19 - 21 ]. However, this has not been the case in earlier studies conducted in South Africa which included participants attending both well and sick child visits.…”