Mothers and childhood pneumonia: What should the focus of public campaigns be?

Abstract

Background: Prompt administration of antibiotics to children with pneumonia significantly reduces the probability of death. However this requires early identification of such children in the community. In a country such as Nigeria with one of the highest pneumoniarelated deaths, what do mothers know about pneumonia, and what should be the content of public campaign messages? Methods: A structured questionnaire was administered to mothers attending paediatric clinics of Lagos University Teaching Hospital seeking their knowledge about the definition, causes, risk factors and symptoms of childhood pneumonia. Results: One hundred and seven (107) consecutive mothers participated in the study. The majority (97; 90.6%) had at least secondary education, were married (96; 89.7%) and professed to be either Christians or Muslims (105; 98.1%).Prior to the study, 16 (15%) had not heard about pneumonia. About half of the participants correctly identified fast/difficult breathing as suggestive of pneumonia. Threequarters reported exposure to cold as the cause of childhood pneumonia. Minimizing exposure to cold and wearing warm clothes were the two commonest reported ways of preventing pneumonia (75.8% and 49.5% of the mothers respectively); in contrast hand washing, exclusive breastfeeding and limiting exposure to sick persons with cough and catarrh were the least mentioned. The proportion of mothers who correctly identified fast/difficult breathing as suggestive of pneumonia was similar irrespective of educational status or source of pneumonia information. Conclusion: Mothers' knowledge of childhood pneumonia is low. Public campaigns on pneumonia should focus on raising awareness about germs as cause of pneumonia, immunization, hand washing and exclusive breastfeeding as potent preventive strategies and fast/difficult breathing as a feature of pneumonia.

Cross Sectional Survey of Care Seeking For Acute Respiratory Illness in Children Under 5 Years in Rural Kenya

“…Majority (87.1%) had poor knowledge of pneumonia causation, and (59.2%) reported that it was due to cold temperature and therefore keeping the child warm could help relief the symptoms. Similar findings were reported in a study done in Nigeria that cold caused pneumonia and reducing its exposure and wearing warm clothes would prevent it [27].…”

Danger Signs of Childhood Pneumonia: Caregiver Awareness and Care Seeking Behavior in a Developing Country

“…This belief which is a common misconception among many lay people in Nigeria was also corroborated by the study in Lagos which found that 75.6% of mothers surveyed believed that cold was the main cause of pneumonia [15]. Furthermore, almost half of respondents in the present survey had knowledge of pneumonia vaccine with only 39.9% of these respondents having vaccinated their child against pneumonia.…”

“…This is hardly surprising as caregivers with these sociodemographic variables are more likely to have more experiences of childhood illnesses and/or are better informed about pneumonia. A hospital based study in Lagos University Teaching Hospital affirmed this finding [15]. It showed that caregivers with lower than tertiary education were more likely to have less knowledge on aspects of pneumonia disease.…”

Mothers Knowledge Related Preventive Measure of Pneumonia in Slum Community, Karachi, Pakistan

“…As far as the education level of a mother is concerned, our study participants were more literate 40.8% as compared to other study has only 32.6% literacy level (13). Although we did not compare the association of mothers' education level with their knowledge, another study has shown that there is the positive association between them (15). The current study found that more than 50% mothers were able to identify the cause and related factors, which contribute towards pneumonia.…”