Knowledge, attitudes and practices related to chronic childhood urinary tract infections among care givers of patients with urinary tract infections - a single centre experience

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Adequate knowledge, positive attitude and good practices of care givers of children with chronic urinary tract infections (UTI) are important for optimal management of the disease. OBJECTIVES: To describe the knowledge attitudes and practices related to management of chronic childhood urinary tract infections (UTI) and influence of socio economic and demographic factors on it among care givers of children with UTI attending a paediatric clinic in the Teaching Hospital of Jaffna. METHODS: A descriptive cross sectional study which included 172 care giver/patient pairs was conducted. A structurally prepared interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect data from April to July 2014. Chi square test and independent sample t test were used for analysis. RESULTS: Among caregivers, 163 (94.8%) were females and among them 151 (87.8%) were mothers. The proportion with good knowledge about childhood UTI was 55.8%. More than two third of the participants had good knowledge on symptoms (73.8%), urine collection techniques (73.3%) and investigations (68.6%). Around two fifth of them had good knowledge regarding causes (44.8%) and treatment (46.5%). Of the participants, 84.9% were worried about their child’s illness. About 44% of care givers used napkins for their children and 81.4% of participants washed their child’s anal region front to back after defecation. One tenth of them used home remedies to manage UTI. Almost all brought their child to clinic regularly and received explanations about UTI. The factors significantly associated with mean of total knowledge score included care givers’ age, educational level, occupation, and monthly income. Knowledge of care givers was significantly associated with usage of home remedies and health education given by health professionals. CONCLUSIONS: Knowledge, attitude and practices of care givers were satisfactory but need to improve in certain aspects. Health education should be more effective and it should augment the awareness and eliminate misconceptions prevailing in the community.