Factors associated with time to seeking treatment among children under five years suffering from diarrhea in Uganda

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the factors associated with time to seeking treatment among children under the age of five years suffering from diarrhea in Uganda. DOVE IV dataset of 746 caretakers in a prospective cohort study using multi stage sampling design was used in the assessment. The analysis was done using a time-to-event approach using life tables,kaplanmeier and multilevel proportional hazards model. In the results, the median time to seeking treatment by the time of the study (N=746) was 2 days (range, 1-30 days) from the onset of diarrhea. In the multivariate analysis using weibull regression, caretaker’s time to seeking treatment was heterogeneous across regions of Uganda. Particularly, caretakers belonging to Iteso (HR=0.3257, p=0.000), Lugbara (HR=0.4837, p=0.037), Muganda (HR=0.3120, p=0.000), Mukiga (HR=0.3755, p=0.002), Munyankore (HR=0.3287, p=0.000) and other ethnicities (HR=0.3369, p=0.000) were more likely to delay inseeking treatment for their children suffering from diarrhea. While caretakers in households belonging to the richest wealth category (HR=1.4769, p=0.018), those in households with high monthly income (HR=1, p=0.047), and those that visited public health facilities (HR=1.2584, p=0.014) were more likely to seek treatment earlier for their children suffering from diarrhea. Wealth quintile, monthly income, ethnicity, type of facility and region were the factors associated with time to seeking treatment among children U5 suffering from diarrhea in Uganda. There should be programs and initiatives by the government and other stakeholders that are driven towards providing skill-based health education and counseling to caretakers on seeking timely treatment and taking children with diarrhea diseases to the health facility because findings indicate that 66.35% of the caretakers delayed in seeking treatment. Furthermore, the study recommends Ministry of Health and the government to prioritize delivery of free health services like oral rehydration solution at community level. The study also recommends other researchers to consider mixed methods analysis involving both qualitative and quantitative approach may provide a better understanding about the treatment seeking behaviors.