South Vietnamese Rural Mothers’ Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice in Child Health Care

Abstract EN

A study of 600 rural under-five mothers’ knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) in child care was performed in 4 southern provinces of Vietnam.

The mothers were randomly selected and interviewed about sociodemographic factors, health seeking behaviour, and practice of home care of children and neonates.

93.2% of the mothers were literate and well-educated, which has been shown to be important for child health care.

98.5% were married suggesting a stable family, which is also of importance for child health.

Only 17.3% had more than 2 children in their family.

The mother was the main caretaker in 77.7% of the families.

Only 1% would use quacks as their first health contact, but 25.2% would use a private clinic, which therefore eases the burden on the government system.

Nearly 69% had given birth in a hospital, 27% in a commune health station, and only 2.7% at home without qualified assistance.

89% were giving exclusive breast feeding at 6 months, much more frequent than in the cities.

The majority of the mothers could follow IMCI guideline for home care, although 25.2% did not deal correctly with cough and 38.7% did not deal correctly with diarrhoea.

Standard information about Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI) based home care is still needed.