Abstract:
Globally, 10.5 million children under five years die annually. Approximately 6 million
of Kenya’s population are children under five years with a child mortality rate of 74 per
1000 live births. The morbidity pattern of children attending Kenyatta National Hospital
(KNH) are mainly gastro enteritis, respiratory diseases, neonatal sepsis and meningitis
accounting for 44 % of all the deaths, which occur in the first 48 hours, post admission.
The objective of this study was to assess care taker factors associated with disease
outcome among children at KNH. A cross sectional study was conducted where
questionnaires were administered to the caretakers of the 156 children recruited into the
study. Data entry was done in Microsoft Access and analyzed using Statistical Package
for Social Science (SPSS). Data from the study revealed that there was a significant
association between diseases outcome and length of exclusive breast-feeding (P <
0.025), occupation of both fathers and mothers (P< 0.026 and P <0.001, respectively) in
the priority disease outcomes. There was a statistically significant association between
duration of illness and that of seeking treatment before visiting KNH, (P < 0.001). A
child that was not breast-fed exclusively for more than 4 months had a 3-fold risk of
being a priority case. Children who stayed more than 2 months before seeking health
care at KNH had a 3-fold risk of becoming priority cases. Using formal education as the
reference category for mother occupation, the odds of priority outcome for unemployed
compared to formal education was 10.4 and informal education compared to formal
education was 7.6. A majority of caretakers delayed in seeking care in the health
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facilities as they sought care in the peripheral health facilities. Majority of the children
attended other public health facilities prior to admission, private clinics or traditional
medical practitioners before attending KNH. Results from this study suggest that
occupation of parents was a major determinant in regard to disease outcome. Families
and communities need to be empowered to obtain and access basic health care services.
More studies need to be done to identify specific caretaker factors associated with
childhood illnesses. This will enable to evaluate further the possible interventions in the
health care delivery among children.
