Determinants of Delayed Treatment-Seeking for Diarrheal Disease among Care Givers/Mothers with Under-Five Children in Dera District, Northwest Ethiopia

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.