Department of Social Work, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.
Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.
Soc Work Health Care. 2024;63(6-7):433-455. doi: 10.1080/00981389.2024.2382160. Epub 2024 Jul 26.
Every child deserves the right to life. In Nigeria like other African countries, a high burden of child mortality prevails. Attaining a low-mortality rate of children entails that mothers who are the primary caregivers are in the best position to provide quality healthcare management.
With the phenomenological approach in qualitative research, the researchers sourced data using Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and In-Depth Interviews (IDI) from 38 mothers of various categories. The participants were purposively selected from four government and mission health institutions in a semi-urban Nsukka town, Enugu State. Data were analyzed thematically.
Results revealed that mothers utilize health institutions including government, mission, private, pharmacies and patent medicine vendors when seeking healthcare for their children. Their inability to recognize potential life-threatening conditions is the leading factor in increasing child mortality. Findings show that because participants were concerned about financial challenges; they were ready to adopt traditional medicine as an alternative to modern medicine. The study showed evidence of unsafe strategies mothers adopt for the health management of their under-five children with common illnesses. Participants indicated little knowledge of social workers' engagement in health institutions.
Healthy living is essential in the protection from illnesses. Since under-five children are vulnerable to illnesses, their mothers should provide them with quality healthcare management. The study recommends that social workers' engagement with health providers and users in semi-urban societies could help propagate healthcare awareness and strategies in mothers' choice of health management for under-five children in Nigeria. Overall, adequate health policy consideration should be given to all under-five children in Nigeria.
每个孩子都应享有生存的权利。在尼日利亚和其他非洲国家一样，儿童死亡率居高不下。要实现儿童低死亡率，作为主要照料者的母亲就必须能够为儿童提供高质量的医疗保健管理。
采用定性研究中的现象学方法，研究人员通过焦点小组讨论（FGD）和深入访谈（IDI）从四个政府和教会医疗机构中选取了 38 名不同类别的母亲作为研究对象。这些参与者是在埃努古州恩苏卡镇半城市地区的 4 家政府和教会医疗机构中根据目的抽样法选取的。研究人员对数据进行了主题分析。
结果表明，母亲在为孩子寻求医疗服务时会利用医疗机构，包括政府、教会、私营、药店和专利药品供应商。她们无法识别潜在的危及生命的情况是导致儿童死亡率上升的主要因素。研究结果表明，由于参与者担心经济方面的挑战，他们更愿意接受传统医学作为现代医学的替代疗法。研究还表明，母亲在管理五岁以下儿童常见疾病时会采用不安全的策略。参与者表示，他们对社会工作者在医疗机构中的参与程度知之甚少。
健康的生活方式对于预防疾病至关重要。由于五岁以下儿童容易受到疾病的影响，因此他们的母亲应该为他们提供高质量的医疗保健管理。本研究建议，在半城市社会中，让社会工作者与医疗服务提供者和使用者合作，可以帮助传播医疗保健意识和策略，帮助母亲选择对五岁以下儿童进行医疗保健管理。总的来说，尼日利亚应充分考虑所有五岁以下儿童的健康政策。
