Perception and Management of Fever in Children, by Mothers in Port Harcourt Nigeria

Abstract

To determine mother’s perception and management of fever in their children. It was a descriptive cross-sectional study, carried out at the children outpatient clinic of the department of Paediatrics, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, over a one-year period, January to December, 2012. Every mother who presented with her child to the children outpatient clinic was recruited and interviewed using a structured questionnaire after obtaining written informed consent, as they presented their children to the children outpatient clinic of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital until we recruited 324mothers, whose children aged between 0-16 years into the study. A little over half of these mothers had completed secondary education. The thermometer was used by 209(64.50%) mothers and the preferred route was by mouth 135(41.67%). 175(54.01%) mothers reported temperature <35ºC as fever. 49.07% of the mothers were worried about the consequences of the fever. 43(13.3%) would give paracetamol. 24(7.4%) would tepid sponge. 15(4.6%) would give a cold bath. 6(1.9%) expose the child to air with reduced clothing. 4(1.2%), wrap the child with warm and thick cloth. 2(0.6%) gave antibiotics. 11 (3.4%) gave antimalaria. 6(1.9%) gave teething drugs. 1 (0.3%) gave nothing. Most mothers got their information on knowledge of fever management from doctors and nurses-164(50.62%). Paracetamol was the most commonly used drug by mothers for the treatment of fever at home-217 (67%). 87(26.852%) would take the child to hospital if fever persisted. This study found a significant association between using physical methods such as giving cold bath to reduce fever, and tepid sponging to reduce fever with no formal education P < 0.0001 and P< 0.0165 respectively. Data was analyzed using Epi-info version 7. Mothers awareness of fever in Port Harcourt is low and Paracetamol is commonly given to children with fever.

Pre-Hospital use of Paracetamol in the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital Paediatric Outpatient Clinic

“…This study discovered a high prevalence of prehospital administration of paracetamol among the respondents 162(40.4%). This is similar to the 51.8% reported in Ekiti, South West Nigeria [7] and 50.9% in Palestine, [5] 56.9% in Mexico [21], 58% in India [22] but lower than the 67% reported earlier by Eberechi et al in Port Harcourt [23] , the 75.6% reported by Obu et al in Enugu [3] and the 81.1% in Ibadan by Ajayi et al [4] .This high rate is not surprising because paracetamol is an OTC medication easily accessible and cheap enough for parents with ill children to give to their children before coming to the hospital. The much higher prevalence in Ibadan [4]could also be explained by the fact that his study was among febrile children who are more likely to have received paracetamol before presentation to relieve fever.…”