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Excerpt
This study is an attempt to understand the field situation of drug use during childhood diarrhoea. We interviewed 400 mothers of urban slums of Lahore and tried to find out role of drugs in acute watery diarrhoea as perceived by them, and their practices in the treatment of childhood diarrhoea. The results showed that though it was difficult for mothers to define diarrhoea properly but 94.5% of the mothers knew about ORS and its correct use. When inquired about their practices in a particular episode, 51.5% of mothers gave only drugs for that episode, while 33.9% used both drugs and ORS. 51.0% of mothers consulted a doctor while 36.6% gave self consultation. In 77.3% of cases uptill 5 drugs were used to treat a single episode of diarrhoea. Out of the drugs used 43.3% were antidiarrhoeals and 33.8% were antibiotics. While comparing mothers knowledge with practice about drugs use, we found mothers tried to follow the advice of prescriber irrespective of their own opinion and that mother's knowledge about diarrhoea, her education status and age were significantly associated(P<.05) with better treatment practices.
We therefore recommend that mothers should be educated, about different types of diarrhoea and to accept the role of ORS alone in acute watery diarrhoea. For better management of diarrhoea, of course, the prescriber, should be properly trained.
