Medical management knowledge of acute diarrhea regarding the WHO guidelines in the pediatric hospitals in Gaza City

الملخص EN

Diarrhea constitutes a large problem in Gaza Strip.

The one answer of this is to utilize evidence-based guidelines in managing of diarrhea, such as the WHO guidelines.

The aim of this study is to assess the medical management knowledge of Acute Diarrhea among children admitted to pediatric hospitals in Gaza City, regarding the WHO guidelines.

The analytical cross-sectional study was conducted during the peak of Diarrheal Diseases (May to August 2016).

The interviewed questionnaires targeted all physicians working at the two general pediatric hospitals in Gaza City.

The response rate was 93.1%.

Only 32.6% of the participants defined Acute Diarrhea correctly.

The most known Acute Diarrhea danger sign was changing the level of consciousness (49.47%).

Sunken of eyes was the most reported sign of dehydration.

Most of the physicians (95.78%) classified dehydration incompatibly.

85% of them know that Intravenous Fluids are indicated only for severely dehydrated cases.

Strikingly, only 23.2% of them know that ORS recommended for all Acute Diarrhea cases.

The percentages of the drugs, used to be recommended, were: zinc sulfate 86.3%, antimicrobials 18.9%, antiemetic 24.2%, and antidiarrheal 4.2%.

Using Chisquare test, four statistically significant associations were identified between the study demographic variables and selected variables.

Due to the low level of medical knowledge regarding the WHO Acute Diarrhea management guideline in Gaza City, the researcher called for the importance of adoption of these guidelines, as well as, the need of the training and the provision of the guidelines copies