Final Report (PDF, 2132K) - Measure DHS

In considering the morbidity information, it is important to bear in mind that the subjectiveevaluation of the mother on the health condition of her child is reflected in the data collected. Forexample, in some homes, mothers believe that diarrhoea is no illness but a "natural cleaning mechanismfor the body." Thus, diarrhoea may not be regarded as "running stomach" or "stooling" until a childbecomes severely dehydrated, develops a temperature, and is very ill. Morbidity measures are alsoaffected by the accuracy of the mother's recall concerning when an illness occurred. Both the failure toreport an illness which occurred within the reference period and the reporting of an episode whichoccurred prior to the reference period would affect the accuracy of a prevalence estimate.DiarrhoeaTable 6.7 shows the percentage of children under age five who had diarrhoea in the two weekspreceding the survey. As reported by their mothers, 1 out of 20 children in this age group suffered at leastone bout of diarrhoea during the reference period. Diarrhoea prevalence varied with the age of the child;the highest rate was for children between the ages of 6 and 23 months. Prevalence rates did not differsubstantially by the sex of the child. Regarding background characteristics, the percentage of childrenwith diarrhoea was highest in the riverine area and for children whose mothers had a primary education.Table 6.7 indicates what treatment, if any, was used by mothers to treat the diarrhoea. Forty-twopercent were taken to a medical facility, 23 percent were given a homemade salt and sugar solution (oralrehydration therapy), 1.3 percent were treated with a solution prepared from ORS packets, and 12 percentreceived no treatment at all. However, differences in the treatment of diarrhoea did not follow theexpected pattern. For example, a smaller proportion of children whose mothers have a secondary or moreeducation (29 percent) consulted a medical facility when their children had diarrhoea than mothers witheither primary (43 percent) or no education (44 percent). However, caution should be exercised wheninterpreting this finding because of the small number of cases of diarrhoea reported by mothers withsecondary or more education and the relatively high sampling variance of the proportion consulting adoctor for treatment.Among mothers of children under age five, the percemage who know about oral rehydrationtherapy (ORT)--either commercially prepared packets of salts (ORS) or home solution--increases with thelevel of education (Table 6.8). Almost 70 percent of women with secondary education know about ORT,compared to 40 percent of women with primary education and less than 30 percent of uneducatedmothers. Also, knowledge of ORT was greater among urban than rural women while women in riverineareas were least likely to know about ORT. Kowledge of ORT based on religon was about the same forCatholic, Protestant and Muslim women, but decidely lower among the small number of women in theother/none religious category.Table 6.9Among Mothers of Children Under Five Years, thePercentage Who Know About ORT by EducatlontAccording to Background Characteristics I ODHS I 1986BackgroundEducationCharacterlstlc None Primary Secondary + TotalResidenceUrban 41.1 49.0 74.8 93.6Rural 22.2 34.8 54.8 31.0Riverlne 4.2 i0.0 0.O 5,8RellqlonCathollc 30.0 36.0 60.0 40.8Protestant 25.5 99.9 66.5 40.0Musllm 31.5 44.7 64.3 37.5Other/None 11.8 29.0 100.0 17.4Total 26.9 39.6 67.9 39.263