AHAIC

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Myths and perceptions on diarrhea and use of ORS/zinc among mothers and caregivers of under five years old

children among a nomadic community in Kenya

IntroductionDiarrheal disease: • second leading cause of death in CU5 in

Kenya• Dehydrates leaving the body without

the water and salts necessary for survival

• Community and individual perceptions and attitudes influence the decisions and practices in prevention and management

• Paper focuses on these amongst the nomadic Maa community in Kenya

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Methods• Qualitative study• Data collected from 42 key

informants and 12 FGDs with caregivers of CU5

• The transcriptions for the twelve voice-recorded FGDs were entered into the MAXQDA version 11 qualitative analysis programme

(which browsed through them to retrieve segments under each thematic coding derived from the study objectives)

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Results• Myths and perceptions grouped

based on dominant and unifying themes (causation, prevention, and treatment)

• Causation: teething, breast feeding while pregnant; having too much sex while breast feeding

• Prevention: use of special herbs and deworming tablets protects children from diarrhea

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Results Ctd…• Treatment: -herbs mixed with

either blood or alcohol work better than the modern drugs in management–The laibons (herbalists) and traditional birth attendants were the main sources of the herbal medicines –There was no consensus on the use of ORS in diarrhea treatment

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Conclusions• Among the Maasai, there are

myths and perceptions on the causes of diarrhea, and on ways of prevention and management

• Interventions aimed at the effective management of diarrhea in children should take account of such myths and perceptions

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Special thanks to:

•WHO (TA)•MOH (National and Narok

South)•MI (Funding)

• To You All for Listening• Co-Authors

AMREF Kenya

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