JNEPHA 2013; 5 –1(5): 7-12 O R I G I N A L A R T I C L E Impact of Community Based Integrated Management of Childhood Illness Program on Behavior Change of Mothers towards Acute Respiratory Infection in Urawn Ethnic Community of Eastern Nepal. Arun Kumar Koirala, 1 BS Lall 2 , Neena Gupta 3 , Dipak Kumar Bose 4 , Virgenia Paul 5 1 Helping Hands Community Hospital, Chabahil, Kathmandu, Nepal 2 Assistant Professor, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Medical Sciences, Indigenous and Alternative System of Medicine; Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Deemed to be University, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh India. 3 A ssistant Professor (Sr. and HOD), Department of Public Health Faculty of Health Medical Sciences, Indigenous and Alternative System of Medicine; Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Deemed University, Allahabad, UP India. 4 Assistant Professor, Department of Extension program, Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Deemed to be University, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh India. 5 Assistant Professor, Helina School of Health Science, Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Deemed to be University, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh India. ABSTRACT Background: The Ministry of Health and Population, Nepal recognizes Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) as one of the major public health problems in Nepal among children <5 years of age. Community Based Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (CB-IMCI) is an integrated package of child-survival programs and addresses major killer diseases like pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, measles, malnutrition in under 5 years children. Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs) are true volunteers that have become the vital link between the community and Nepal Government’s healthcare system. Methods: Cross sectional study had been carried out. Morang and Sunsari districts were selected purposively due to comprise of three-forth Urawn inhabitants. Sample sizes were allocated for both selected districts as per sharing percent- age of total population. Five Village Development Committees (VDCs) from each district were selected purposively for sample by probability proportion to size and then sample size was allocated accordingly by sharing a percentage of the population. Respondents were selected by snowball sampling technique. Urawn women having children less than 7 years of age were taken as the target population with sample size 401. Result: Among total enrolled respondents mean ± SD age of the respondents was 28.90 ± 4.46 years. After implementation of CBIMCI, 99.5% observed change in behaviors of mothers. All most all mothers (99.7%) sought help for their sick children in earlier stage. For prevention from ARI, about half of the mothers had taken help from FCHVs, which was significantly increased after the implementation of CBIMCI (p<0.001). The percentage of mothers who had provided a warm fluid and breast milk to their children for the prevention of ARI was also significantly increased (p<0.001) after implementation of the program. Mothers’ behaviors on health seeking behavior for their children with ARI as seeking help from FCHV and from health institutions were also significantly increased after the implementation of CBIMCI program. Conclusions: Findings of the study showed the positive impact of CBIMCI on the mothers’ behaviors of Urawn community in reference to ARI Key words: Acute Respiratory Infection, Community Based Integrated Management , Childhood Illness INTRODUCTION Pneumonia kills more children than any other illness. Around 156 million cases of childhood pneumonia occur each year, a majority of them in low and middle income countries (LMIC), [1, 2] An estimated 98% of children who die from pneumonia live in LMIC. [3] One child dies from pneumonia every 20 seconds, adding up to 4,300 young lives lost every Corresponding Author Arun Kumar Koirala Helping Hands Community Hospital, Chabahil, Kathmandu, Nepal Email: arunkoirala@gmail.com Journal of Nepal Public Health Association | Volume 5|Issue 1| No 5| Jul.-Dec.2013 Page 7