Author
Listed:
- de Zoysa, Isabelle
- Carson, Debbie
- Feachem, Richard
- Kirkwood, Betty
- Lindsay-Smith, Euan
- Loewenson, Rene
Abstract
In the course of a study on the acceptability and feasibility of home-based oral rehydration therapy in rural Zimbabwe, information was collected on attitudes and beliefs about diarrhoea and on action taken in response to an episode of diarrhoea in a child. Diarrhoea was found to be a perceived threat at community and family level and numerous possible causes of diarrhoea were described which were assigned to two broad classes: (1) 'physical' causes, such as a polluted environment, diet and teething and (2) 'social and spiritual' causes such as those associated with a depressed fontanelle. These domains were not, however, mutually exclusive; 76% of the described episodes of diarrhoea were attributed to 'physical' causes, 15% to 'social and spiritual' causes and 8% to a combination of both. Reported utilization rates of the formal health services were unexpectedly high. In contrast, we recorded a low demand for indigenous herbalists (n'angas). Home management was common and comprised the administration of indigenous herbal remedies, of sugar and salt solutions, of over-the-counter drugs or of enemas. These remedies were given on their own or alongside the treatment prescribed by a health worker. A number of variables were examined to assess their influence on health-seeking behaviour: perceived cause and severity of the illness, socio-demographic characteristics of the respondent or child and accessibility of the health services. Of these factors only perceived cause was a significant predictor for the utilization of the formal health services: illness ascribed to 'physical' causes or to a combination of 'physical' and 'social and spiritual' causes were brought to the attention of a representative of the formal health services more often than illness ascribed to 'social or spiritual' causes only (62 and 59 vs 46%). Health care activities should build upon local perceptions about illness and its control. New practices, such as oral rehydration therapy, may be acceptable if they are congruous with the underlying belief system and if they are promoted by health workers who are sensitive to the needs and priorities of the communities in which they operate.
Suggested Citation
de Zoysa, Isabelle & Carson, Debbie & Feachem, Richard & Kirkwood, Betty & Lindsay-Smith, Euan & Loewenson, Rene, 1984.
"Perceptions of childhood diarrhoea and its treatment in rural Zimbabwe,"
Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 19(7), pages 727-734, January.
Handle:
RePEc:eee:socmed:v:19:y:1984:i:7:p:727-734
Download full text from publisher
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.
Citations
Citations are extracted by the
CitEc Project, subscribe to its
RSS feed for this item.
Cited by:
- Ellis, Amy A. & Winch, Peter & Daou, Zana & Gilroy, Kate E. & Swedberg, Eric, 2007.
"Home management of childhood diarrhoea in southern Mali--Implications for the introduction of zinc treatment,"
Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 701-712, February.
- Colvin, Christopher J. & Smith, Helen J. & Swartz, Alison & Ahs, Jill W. & de Heer, Jodie & Opiyo, Newton & Kim, Julia C. & Marraccini, Toni & George, Asha, 2013.
"Understanding careseeking for child illness in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review and conceptual framework based on qualitative research of household recognition and response to child diarrhoea, ,"
Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 66-78.
Corrections
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:19:y:1984:i:7:p:727-734. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through
the various RePEc services.