Knowledge and attitude of mothers of under five children with upper respiratory tract infection

Background: One of the major causes of child mortality and morbidity rate is acute respiratory tract infection. Under five children are more vulnerable to respiratory tract infections. Lack of knowledge and awareness about the severity of the disease has been a major cause for increased mortality. Objectives: To assess the knowledge and attitude among the mothers of under five children with URTI. Study design: Cross sectional design was adopted for this study. Setting: The study was carried out in pediatric outpatient departments of selected secondary care hospital of Udupi (dt). Karnataka. Material and method: The data have been collected from 154 mothers using structured knowledge questionnaire for assessing mother’s knowledge and 5 point Likert scale for assessing mother’s attitude towards the Upper respiratory tract infection (URTI). Convenient sampling technique was used for sample selection. Statistics: Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Results: Majority 63 (40.9%) of the sample had average and 62 (40.2%) had good knowledge, 29 (18.8%) had poor knowledge regarding URTI. Majority of the sample 129 (83.80%) had favourable attitude and 25 (16.20%) samples had unfavourable attitude towards prevention of URTI. Conclusion: The findings highlight that, the nurses and health care providers can play a significant role in educating the mothers regarding importance of seeking medical care and prevention of URTI in under five children.