IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i1p308-d474257.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health Perceptions in Relation to Child Health and Mortality in a Rural Context, Sierra Leone: A Mixed Method Study

Author

Listed:
  • Camilla Midtgaard Eriksen

    (Unit for Health Promotion Research, University of Southern Denmark, 6700 Esbjerg, Denmark)

  • Monica Lauridsen Kujabi

    (Global Health Section, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1050 Copenhagen, Denmark)

  • Aminata Sulaiman Kanu

    (Faculty of Social Science, University of Makeni, Makeni, Sierra Leone)

  • Gabriel Gulis

    (Unit for Health Promotion Research, University of Southern Denmark, 6700 Esbjerg, Denmark)

Abstract

Child survival and wellbeing remain a global health challenge despite vast development within the area and a significant decline in mortality rates of children under five years of age. This study investigates the perceived causes of ill health and childhood mortality in the context of five villages located in the Tonkolili district of Sierra Leone. Mixed method methodology was applied in this study consisting of both quantitative and qualitative data contribution. The quantitative part consisted of a household survey on child health, where 341 households, equivalent to 50.6% of the total number of households in the five villages, participated with a response rate of 100%. The qualitative part consisted of six semi structured interviews—one with a health care worker and five with mothers from each village. The main perceived reason for child morbidity was inadequate care of children related to personal hygiene of the child, hygiene and safety in the environment, in-sufficient nutrition, inadequate supervision and poor healthcare seeking behavior. Additionally, reasons given for disease included supernatural forces such as witchcraft. In relation to the survey, the perceived causes of child mortality for ill children in the villages were mainly malaria (33.6%), diarrhea (11.6%), pneumonia (8.6%), and unknown (26%). The observed symptoms of illness among children were fever (43.7%), cough and difficulty breathing (10.7%), frequent watery stool (10.3%) and no symptoms (20.3%). The perception of ill health in children was mainly associated with the parent’s ability to cater for the child’s physical needs, but also associated with external factors such as witchcraft and “God’s will”. In addition, biomedical causes for disease and supernatural causes for disease were seen to coexist.

Suggested Citation

  • Camilla Midtgaard Eriksen & Monica Lauridsen Kujabi & Aminata Sulaiman Kanu & Gabriel Gulis, 2021. "Health Perceptions in Relation to Child Health and Mortality in a Rural Context, Sierra Leone: A Mixed Method Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-14, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:1:p:308-:d:474257
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/1/308/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/1/308/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Damián E. Blasi & Susanne Maria Michaelis & Martin Haspelmath, 2017. "Grammars are robustly transmitted even during the emergence of creole languages," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 1(10), pages 723-729, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sandro Sessarego, 2020. "Not all grammatical features are robustly transmitted during the emergence of creoles," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-8, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:1:p:308-:d:474257. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.