Maternal Perception and Care-Seeking Patterns for Childhood Febrile Illnesses in Rural Communities of Osun State, South-Western Nigeria

Introduction: Febrile illnesses have been known to have considerable impact on childhood morbidity and mortality. Mothers are primary caregivers and are usually first to recognize illness in their children. Appropriate care-seeking behaviour of mothers could prevent significant number of child deaths and complications due to childhood illness. Objectives: To assess the perception and care-seeking behaviour of mothers of febrile under-five children in rural communities of Osun State. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among mothers of febrile children presenting in rural primary health care facilities of Osun State using questionnaire survey. Focus group discussions (FGD) were also carried out among mother of under-fives. Two-hundred and forty mothers were selected using multistage sampling. FGD participant were purposively selected. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize information on socio-demographic characteristics of respondents, chi-square tests to determine association between variables and logistic regression to determine predictors of appropriate care-seeking behaviour. Result: Mean age of mothers 28.2(±7.7) years, majority of the mothers patronize patent medicine stores (39.2%) and traditional healers (22.9%) Appropriate care was sought by only 82 (34.2%). Mothers age <35years [AOR=3.1, (1.2-7.7)]; employment status [AOR= 4.4, (2.3-8.5)]; and perceived severity of illness [AOR= 2.5, (1.4-5.0)] were significant predictors of appropriate care-seeking behaviour. FGD reveals that misconceptions about febrile illnesses and traditional beliefs are prevalent in these areas. Conclusion: There is need to focus on interventions targeted towards addressing misconceptions about childhood febrile illnesses thus ensuring improvement in care-seeking behaviours of mothers. Training of patent medicine vendors may complement government effort in ensuring provision of appropriate health services in rural areas.