The Impact of Health Education Intervention on Perception and Treatment Seeking Behaviour About Childhood Infections among Caregivers in Rural Communities in Western Nigeria

Primary health care as stated in the Alma Ata declaration underscores the importance of health education as one of the key methods of preventing and controlling prevailing health problems. This study seeks to test the effect of health education on perception and treatment seeking behaviour among care givers of under fives in a rural setting in Ogun State, Nigeria.
The study design was a quasi-experimental study carried out in Ijebu North Local Government Area of Ogun State. A multistage random sampling technique was used in choosing the required samples for this study and a semi- structured questionnaire was used to collect relevant information. The intervention consisted of a structured educational programme based on a course content adapted from the national malaria control programme. A total of 400 respondents were recruited into the study with 200 each in both the experimental and control groups and were followed up for a period of 3 months when the knowledge and treatment seeking behaviour was reassessed.
There was no statistically significant differences observed between the experimental and control groups in terms of socio-dermographic characteristics such as age [p=0.99], marital status [p=0.48], religion [p=0.1], and income [p=0.51]. The highest proportion of mothers reported malaria [45% & 47%] in experimental and control groups respectively, followed by Upper respiratory tract infection [22% & 25%], diarrhoea and vomiting [14% & 17%], measles [12% & 15%], convulsion [8% & 11%] and others [3% & 5%]. Only 52.1% (experimental) and 48% (control) groups of mothers believed that fever can kill a child. Furthermore, about 40% (experimental) and 44% (control) groups believed fever was not fatal while 8.0% of both groups were not sure. Post intervention, these differences were not statistically significant. The proportion of those who got their source of information about prevention of fever from health worker increased from 60.0% (pre-intervention) to 95.0% (post-intervention) (p<0.001) compared to the control group which increased from 62.0% (pre-intervention) to 62.5% (post-intervention) (p>0.001). Furthermore, 72.9% & 50.8% of respondents in the experimental and control group respectively commenced treatment at the right time (first day of fever). There was a significant increase of 24.6% [p=0.001] post intervention in the experimental group with no significant change in the control [p=0.64].
The study concludes that a systematic health education programme to caregivers should be a component of Roll back Malaria programme in Africa. Early diagnosis and prompt treatment is essential to control of infection and this can only be effectively carried out by those at the frontline of care at home.