PRACTICE OF THE USE OF ORAL REHYDRATION THERAPY IN DIARRHEAL DISEASE AMONG MOTHERS OF UNDER FIVE IN EKPO ABASI HEALTH CENTRE CROSS RIVER STATE

Abstract

Introduction: Oral rehydration therapy (ORT) is used all round the world, nevertheless diarrhoea remains a leading cause of childhood death in middle and low income countries. Purpose: The study sought to determine the practice of the use of oral rehydration therapy in diarrheal disease among mothers of under five in Ekpo Abasi, Calabar south local government area of Cross River State. Objectives: Two research objectives and one hypothesis was formulated to guide the study. Literature was reviewed. Method: A descriptive research design was used for the study and a simple random sampling was used to select 180 participants used.  A structural questionnaire was used to collect data from participants. Result: The result of the data was analyzed using frequency table and the hypothesis was tested using Pearson product moment correlation. The results shows that out of 180 respondents that was used for the study, those that use ORT in diarrhea diseases treatment always were 57 (31.7%), those that used occasionally were 74 (41.1%) those that never used were 49 (27.2%. in another question asked I use herbs in diarrhoae diseases treatment 41 (22.8%) said always while 100 (55.6%) said occasionally and 39 (21.8%) said never. Conclusion: Based on the above result, it was concluded that majority of the women had good knowledge of ORT but show poor practice of ORT. Recommendation: It was recommended that nurses and others health personnel should encourage mothers to practice the use of ORT as first aid measures when their children have diarrhoeal