Medical management practices for hospitalized children with acute diarrhea in Gaza city

Abstract EN

Diarrheal Disease among children remains a major constituent of morbidity in Gaza City.

The way to ensure the quality of hospital care, produced to those patients, is to comply with the evidence-based guidelines.

This cross-sectional study was conducted to describe the commitment of the pediatricians in Gaza City to the WHO guidelines in the management practices of Acute Diarrhea among children less than 5 years.

During the peak of Diarrheal Disease (May to August 2016), a designed retrieval sheet was used to identify the pediatricians' actual practices, where 301 of the cases' records were retrieved from the pediatric hospitals.

Documenting most of the danger signs of Acute Diarrhea (3 and 4 compatible signs), specified by the guidelines, had a very low percentage (18.9%).

Documenting most of the dehydration signs (2 and 3 correct signs) had a percentage of 47.5%.

For classification of dehydration, only 27% of the classification practices were correct.

The percentage of medical records with a correct indication of Intravenous fluids and Oral Rehydration Solution were 16.3% and 65.4%, respectively.

The percentages of using of drugs were: 24.3% for zinc, 65.1% for antiemetics, 59.1% for antimicrobials, while the least was for antidiarrheal (5.6%).

The only statistically significant relationship was found between the cases' gender and the prescription of antidiarrheal (P-value = 0.007).

As there was no guideline to be complied with in Gaza City, the researcher highlighted the importance of adoption and application of the WHO Diarrheal Disease management guidelines, as well as the need to audit and regular feedback.