Open AccessHealth Seeking Behaviour of Parents for Children with Pneumonia
Author(s) -
Kalyan Pandey,
Abhijeet Kumar Jha,
Raja Ram Dhungana,
Ritesh Lamsal
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of nepal medical association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.176
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1815-672X
pISSN - 0028-2715
DOI - 10.31729/jnma.228
Subject(s) - medicine , pneumonia , pediatrics , presentation (obstetrics) , affect (linguistics) , child health , demography , family medicine , surgery , philosophy , linguistics , sociology
Health knowledge seeking behaviour is increasing throughout the world. Our study is trying to fi nd out this attitude among parents of children with pneumonia. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted to analyse all admitted children with pneumonia at Dhulikhel Hospital from September 1, 2006 to August 31, 2007. “Duration of illness at home prior to hospital presentation” was taken as the index of health seeking behaviour of the parents. Results: The mean duration of illness prior to hospital presentation for males and females were 4.40 days and 4.16 days respectively (P>0.05). Children who had been hospitalised in the past had a mean of 4.93 days; those never hospitalised before had 4.08 days (P>0.05). Children from Bhaktapur and Kathmandu were brought to the hospital the earliest. Younger children were brought to the hospital sooner; children less than fi ve years were brought earlier, particularly infants.Conclusions: Health seeking behaviour of the parents is affected by age of the children and geographical location. However, previous hospitalisation of the child and their gender do not affect health seeking behaviour of the parents. Key Words: children, health seeking behaviour, paediatrics