Ansari Mukhtar, Ibrahim Mohamed Izham Mohamed, Hassali Mohamed Azmi, Shankar P Ravi, Koirala Arun, Thapa Noor Jang
Discipline of Social and Administrative Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang 11800, Malaysia.
BMC Res Notes. 2012 Oct 24;5:576. doi: 10.1186/1756-0500-5-576.
In developing countries, mothers usually manage diarrhea at home with the pattern of management depending on perceived disease severity and beliefs. The study was carried out with the objective of determining mothers' beliefs and barriers about diarrhea and its management.
Qualitative methods involving two focus group discussions and eight in-depth interviews were used to collect the data. The study was conducted at the following places: Tankisinuwari, Kanchanbari and Pokhariya of Morang district, Nepal during the months of February and March 2010. Purposive sampling method was adopted to recruit twenty mothers based on the inclusion criteria. A semi-structured interview guide was used to conduct the interviews. Written informed consent was obtained from all of the participants before conducting the interviews. The interviews were moderated by the main researcher with the support of an expert observer from Nobel Medical College. The interviews were recorded with the permission of the participants and notes were written by a pre trained note-taker. The recordings were transcribed verbatim. All the transcribed data was categorized and analyzed using thematic content analysis.
Twenty mothers participated in the interviews and most (80%) of them were not educated. About 75% of the mothers had a monthly income of up to 5000 Nepalese rupees (US$ 60.92). Although a majority of mothers believed diarrhea to be due to natural causes, there were also beliefs about supernatural origin of diarrhea. Thin watery diarrhea was considered as the most serious. There was diversity in mothers' beliefs about foods/fluids and diarrhea management approaches. Similarly, several barriers were noted regarding diarrhea prevention and/or management such as financial weakness, lack of awareness, absence of education, distance from healthcare facilities and senior family members at home. The elderly compelled the mothers to visit traditional healers.
There were varied beliefs among the mothers about the types, causes and severity of diarrhea, classification of foods/fluids and beliefs and barriers about preventing or treating diarrhea.
在发展中国家，母亲们通常在家中处理腹泻问题，处理方式取决于她们对疾病严重程度的认知和观念。开展这项研究的目的是确定母亲们对于腹泻及其处理的观念和障碍。
采用了包括两次焦点小组讨论和八次深入访谈的定性方法来收集数据。2010年2月和3月期间，在尼泊尔莫朗区的坦基西努瓦里、坎钱巴里和波卡里亚等地开展了该研究。采用目的抽样法，根据纳入标准招募了20位母亲。使用半结构化访谈指南进行访谈。在进行访谈前，获得了所有参与者的书面知情同意。访谈由首席研究员主持，并得到诺贝尔医学院一位专家观察员的支持。经参与者许可进行了录音，由一名经过预培训的记录员做笔记。录音逐字转录。所有转录数据使用主题内容分析法进行分类和分析。
20位母亲参与了访谈，其中大多数（80%）未受过教育。约75%的母亲月收入高达5000尼泊尔卢比（60.92美元）。尽管大多数母亲认为腹泻是由自然原因引起的，但也有关于腹泻超自然起源的观念。稀水样腹泻被认为是最严重的。母亲们在关于食物/液体和腹泻处理方法的观念上存在差异。同样，在腹泻预防和/或处理方面也存在一些障碍，如经济困难、缺乏意识、未受过教育、距离医疗机构远以及家中缺乏长辈。长辈迫使母亲们去看传统治疗师。
母亲们在腹泻的类型、原因和严重程度、食物/液体分类以及预防或治疗腹泻的观念和障碍方面存在多种不同的观念。
