Abstract

DIAZ-CARDENAS, Shyrley; ARRIETA-VERGARA, Katherine  and  RAMOS-MARTINEZ, Ketty. IMCI and the maternal practice of African descendants' living on the Colombian Caribbean coast regarding the common cold and diarrhea. Rev. salud pública [online]. 2013, vol.15, n.4, pp.605-613. ISSN 0124-0064.

Objective Evaluating maternal practice regarding diarrhoea and the common cold. Method This was a cross-sectional descriptive study which was conducted on the island of Barú, near Cartagena, Colombia. It involved 127 mothers of African descent and their 138 children aged less than 5 years of age; convenience sampling was used. The Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) instrument was used for the survey during a one-day healthcare session. The prevalence of diarrhoea and the common cold during the 7 days immediately before the survey were estimated, as were maternal practice regarding these and the occurrence of other risks and protective factors; a history of breastfeeding, complementary feeding and vaccination was compiled. Descriptive statistics were used and the χ² test was used for ascertaining the significance of the relationships between variables. Results Diarrhoea prevalence was 71.7 % (64-79 95 % CI), this being lower for girls aged 2 months to 5 years-old (p = 0,02) and common cold prevalence was 99.2 % (97-100 95 % CI), this being higher in girls aged older than 2 months (p=0.004). 86.9 % (81-92 95 % CI) of the mothers did not know how to identify warning signs for these diseases, 84.9 % (78-90 95 % CI) of the practices were inadequate and 73.3% of the mothers took their children to a doctor as their first line medical practice (p=0.05). Conclusions Efforts must be increased regarding the implementation of the IMCI strategy in vulnerable communities, through effective channels of communication and innovative ways to reduce child morbidity and mortality indices, thereby promoting the island's social development.

Keywords : Diarrhea; common cold; mother; preschool.

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