Correlation Between Knowledge With Mother’s Behavior About Diarrhea Prevention in Children

Abstract

Background: Diarrhea is a major cause of child morbidity and mortality. Diarrhea is the second leading cause of death in children in the world. Parental knowledge plays an important role to prevent diarrhea. Mother’s knowledge is expected to influence on mother’s behavior in making quick and appropriate decisions to minimize risks or cause of diarrhea.

Purpose: The study aimed to explore the knowledge and behavior of mothers in preventing diarrhea in children.

Methods: The study design was descriptive analytic with a cross sectional approach. The sample in thisstudy were 73 mothers who had children under five years old. Data collected by researchers at Posyandu. Questionnaire of mother’s knowledge and mother’s behavior about preventing diarrhea in children was used in this study. Spearman rank test was used to analyze the data.

Results:The majority of mother^s knowledge about diarrhea is sufficient category (57,5%) and mother’s behavior in preventing diarrhea is in good category (75,3%). There was a correlation between knowledge and mother’s behavior about preventing diarrhea in children with a p value 0,002 and correlation value 0,349.

Conclusion: Health education about prevention of diarrhea in children for families, especially mothers, need to be improved.