EFFECT OF EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION ON MATERNAL KNOWLEDGE IN USE OF ANTIBIOTICS IN ACUTE RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS AMONG UNDER FIVE CHILDRENIN URBAN FIELD PRACTICE AREA OF MEDICAL COLLEGE BANGALORE

Background: Acute respiratory infections are the most important cause of mortality and morbidity among under-five children in developed and developing countries in the world. There is lack of awareness/ knowledge among parents regarding antibiotic use in children for minor respiratory ailments. Hence, the present study was undertaken. Methods and Methodology: After taking institutional ethical clearance a Descriptive study on 100 mothers of under-five children attending Urban Health Training Centre of KIMS, Bangalore, is enrolled by convenience sampling. Using pre-structured and pre-tested questionnaire proforma, socio-demographic details, a few questions related to acute respiratory infections were collected. After the pre-test, health education was given to the urban health training center participants using flip charts. Followed by 2 weeks of health education, the same questionnaire was given to the subjects, and details were collected. Descriptive statistics and SPSS V20 were used for statistical analysis. Results: Pre and post-test knowledge and attitude were analyzed using wilxcon sign rank test, which showed the effect of health education was found to be statistically significant with z value and p-value of -1.926 & 0.054, respectively. Conclusion & Recommendation: The effect of educational intervention on maternal knowledge in antibiotics was good. Similar studies should be done in a larger scale by using larger sample size.