Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of the Parents/Caregivers on Homebased Management of Diarrhoea in Children Under Five Years at a Local Hospital in Namibia

Background: Diarrhoea illnesses is the leading cause of death in children under five years old globally. Proceeded studies showed limited evidence on knowledge, attitudes and practices of the parents/caregivers in prevention and management of diarrhoea in children. Objectives: This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitudes, practices and socio-demographic variables of parents and caregivers of children under five years. Methodology: A quantitative, descriptive and analytical design was used. A systematic sampling technique of random sampling method was used to collect data using questionnaires. Data was prepared and entered into SPSS version 29 for analysis. Pearson’s correlation was used to examine the correlation between the demographic variables and the knowledge, attitude and practices scores, while Chi-square cross tabulation was applied to test the associations. Results: Out of 400 parents and caregivers, 96.3% had good level of knowledge, 81.5% had negative attitudes, while 87.7% had poor level of practice. The practices of the parents and caregivers are significantly, negatively correlated to the parents’ ages. In addition, attitudes were positively correlated to practice and knowledge was found to be positively correlated to the attitude. Conclusion: Residences, employment status, marital status and chiefly educational level are associated with the knowledge, attitudes and practices on home based management of diarrhoea. The study provides an insight on management of diarrhoea in children, conversely contributing to the comprehensive understanding on how sociodemographic variables affect the knowledge, attitudes and practices of parents/caregivers.