Pre-Hospital Management of Diarrhea Among Age Five Children in ILESS Community, Ogun State, Nigeria

Diarrhea is the passage of unformed or watery stools occurring above three or more instances in a 24-hour period with an elevated frequency or decreased consistency of bowel movements, and it affects persons of all ages. Despite widespread global development in reducing child deaths over the last decades, diarrhea retains its place as a leading cause of mortality in children less than 5 years of age. The study is based on pre hospital management of diarrhea disease among under age five children in Ilese community. The study was a descriptive cross sectional survey involving One Hundred (100) mothers with children under age five using stratified sampling techniques. Data generated was analyzed and presented in frequency and percentage. Inferential (chi-square) analysis was conducted to test for the significant difference among means (P<0.05) using SPSS version 22. Findings from this study showed adequate knowledge on diarrhea and pre hospital management in Ilese community (X²=18.85, P=0.0044) which contributed to understanding of major signs and symptoms of diarrhea such as passage of loose or watery stool.  Oral rehydration (X²=22.48, P=0.0010) is the major pre-hospital management of diarrhea in Ilese community because of its effectiveness in the management of diarrhea. The knowledge of zinc treatment as management for diarrhea is significant. (X²=44.25, P<0.001) although it is not well utilized by the mothers .Therefore, oral rehydration is the only pre-hospital management that is adequately used by these mothers in Ilese community. Based on the outcome of this study, it was recommended that mothers should take the child to a health provider for ORS or intravenous electrolyte solution upon signs of dehydration as well as familiarizing with other symptoms defining medical treatment (bloody diarrhea) and health care workers should counsel mothers to begin administering suitable available home fluids immediately upon onset of diarrhea in a child.