Health Education: Patients' Perception

Two hundred and six mothers of children under 5 years of age attending pediatric helth services in Jamaica were interviewed to determine their perceived and preferred source of health education. The seven topics of health education which were surveyed were family planning, breast feeding, infant feeding, oral rehydration solution, growth chart, prevention of accidents, and immunization. Mothers perceived nurses as their main providers of health information. However, they named doctors as their preferred source for health information in most of the topics surveyed. Assessment of mothers' knowledge of the growth chart, in those who had received specific education about this, revealed that 88 per cent had an inadequate understanding of a curve falling through the percentiles. this study highlights the importance of providing doctors and nurses with the necessary training and motivation to fulfil their role as health educators. (AU)