Abstract:
Background: - under-five child death by diarrhea due to delay in timely treatment seeking is
critical, despite of the governmental efforts on health facility access and health extension
program. Hence having recent evidence on factors of delayed treatment seeking is essential
to avert delay in seeking care. Ensuring timely treatment of diarrheal prevent progressive
complication and death.
Objective: The aim of this study was to identify determinants of delayed treatment seeking
for diarrhea among care givers/mothers with under-five child in Dera district Northwest
Ethiopia.
Methods: A facility based unmatched case- control study was employed from May, 2024 to
July, 2024. Care givers were selected by systematic random sampling techniques. A total of
640 participants with 1 to 1 ratio of cases and controls were selected. The data were collected
using structured pre tested questionnaire. EPI-Data 4.6 for data entry and STATA version 14
for analysis were used. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression analysis were
applied. Variables with p-value < 0.05 in multivariable analysis were declared as significant.
Results: in this study child age <=24 month (AOR3.4 (95% CI 1.6-7.3)), female child (AOR
2.7 (95% CI 1.3-5.6)),Mothers 15-25 years of age (AOR 3.8 (95% CI 1.2-11.8)), not member
of CBHI, (AOR 5.9 (95% CI 2.7-13.1)),Mothers had more than two children (AOR3.6 (95%
CI 1.05-12.2)), decision made to take the child to HF by child fathers with (AOR 5.9 (95%
CI 1.1-5)) and had no history of visiting HF (AOR 6 (95% CI 1.9-18.9) were the determinant
of delayed care -seeking among mothers of under-five child with diarrheal disease.
Conclusion and Recommendation: child age, sex of child, age of mother, number of <5
children, not member of community based health insurance, decision made by child father to
take child to HF and history of visiting health facility for previous diarrhea, were
significantly associated with delayed treatment–seeking. This finding implies that awareness
creation is mandatory on care givers. Intervention to reduce delayed on care seeking should
be focused on those factors to promote early treatment seeking.
