Maternal Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Towards Diarrhea and Oral Rehydration Therapy in Rural Maharashtra Vikram Datta, Rosy John, V.P. Singh and Pushpa Chaturvedi Department of Pediatrics, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Maharashtra, India. Abstract. Objective : A cross sectional hospital based survey was undertaken in rural area of Wardha District of Maharashtra to assess the knowledge, attitutde and practices of mothers regarding diarrhea and oral rehydration therapy. Methods : 75 mothers of under-five children have been selected in the study. They were interviewed by an interviewer using a predesigned and pretested questionnaire. 69.3% of them had a per capita income of less than rupees 500 where as 68% knew the correct definition of diarrhea. Only 5.3% had aware that diarrhea leads to dehydration and 90.7% knew ORT and ORS was easily available to the majority, but the rest practiced ORT. Results : Nearly 1/3rd of mothers were mixing ORS in the wrong fluid. Nearly half of the mothers were not practicing adequate hand washing, 32% were using feeding bottles and 2/3rd of them were not boiling the feeding bottles. Conclusion : The maternal knowledge towards diarrhea and ORS was inadequate in the population studied and there was a big gap between actual and desired practices. [Indian J Pediatr 2001; 68 (11) : 1035-1037] Key words : Diarrhea; ORS; Practices. Diarrheal disease is a serious health problem worldwide. It is perhaps one of the most important causes of sickness and death among infants and children in developing countries. Recent global estimations suggest that diarrhea kills about 3.2 million under five children every year with a per child average of 3-4 acute episodes per year. 1 Though simple and effective treatment measures are available which can markedly reduce diarrhea associated morbidity and mortality, yet in developing countries due to poor diarrhea and ORT related knowledge in the community, diarrhea still continues to be a major public health problem. Based on the fact that knowledge of mothers in developing countries regarding diarrhea, its management, adequate feeding practices and use of ORS is very limited, this .study was planned to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of mothers towards acute diarrhea and oral rehydration therapy and also to impart requisite health education to them. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was conducted in the Pediatric OPD of Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Science and related Kasturba Hospital, which is a tertiary care teaching Reprint requests : Dr. V'tkram Datta,4, BirlaNivas MGIMS Campus, Sevagram, Wardha, Maharashtra-442102. E-mail : vikramdatta123 @rediff.com hospital, catering to the rural population of Wardha and adjoining areas of Rural Maharashtra. A planned prospective study was carried out from July to December 2000, the study population comprised of 75 mothers of under 5 children, who attended the Pediatric OPD. A single interviewer interviewed all of these 75 mothers on a pre-designed, pretested questionnaire. At the end of the interview the mothers were handed over a health education pamphlet in local dialect pertaining to diarrhea to improve their knowledge and management skills in future. RESULTS 75 mothers of under-five children were enrolled in the study. The age wise distribution and occupation of mothers is shown in Table 1. Majority of the mothers (69.3%) had a per-capita income of less than Rs. 500. The educational status of mothers is shown in Table 2. Only 68% of the mothers knew the correct definition of diarrhea, this knowledge was higher in mothers educated till more than 10th grade, graduate and post-graduate standards. Maternal knowledge regarding dehydration was very poor and only 4/75 (5.3%) mothers were aware that diarrhea leads to dehydration. Out of these 4 mothers 3 (75%) were not aware of the signs of dehydration. 84% of the mothers were aware that the child has to be given Indian Journal of Pediatrics, Volume 68~November, 2001 1035