Abstract :
Introduction with Objectives: Diarrheal diseases rank among the “to three” causes of pediatric death of
the developing world. Dehydration is the most common cause of death in it. The objectives of the study
were -to identify the practices, barriers to practice of oral rehydration therapy and its mutual association
and association with some selected demographic variables like age, education, occupation, religion, type
of community and family income .
Methods and Materials: A descriptive survey approach and design was used for the study.Convenience
non probability sampling technique was used to collect data from 113 mothers of the underfive children
attending the paediatric outpatient department of Guwahati Medical College and Hospital, Assam. Data’s
were collected by a structured interview schedule.
Result and Analysis: The assessment was done by descriptive statistics. It revealed barrier scores
like knowledge barrier (M=2.4, SD=.68),practice barrier(M=4.06,SD=1.91), socio-cultural barrier
(M=2.4,SD=.68), Access barrier (M=0.31,SD=0.91), and financial barrier (M=1.72, SD=2.46),. The study
findings shows strong association of practice level with age (chi square= 61.54; df=6, p
(chi square= 77.53; df=6, p
association of knowledge barrier (chi square= 9.5; df=3, p
p
the mothers.
Discussion & Conclusion: 55% of mothers strongly agreed that while practicing ORT their child vomits
or had feeling of nausea and the dislikes of taste of ORS are some barriers towards practice of ORT. 31%
of mothers believed other traditional method more effective than ORT which is also a moderate barrier to
practice ORT. 32 % of mothers said that the cost of ORS is high for them to afford for which they go for
traditional method. Therefore strategies should be made to reduce the emetic factor and also to add a good
taste in ORS, to reduce cost for increasing its practice.
Keyword :
ORT, Barrier and Practice.