Differential Utilisation of two Therapeutic Methods in the Management of Diarrhoea among Under-Five Children Attending Primary Health Care Centres in Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Diarrhoea remains the leading killer of children, accounting for approximately 9 percent of all deaths among children under age 5 worldwide in 2019. This translates to over 1,300 young children under five dying each day, or about 484,000 children a year, despite the availability of a simple treatment solution like the use of oral rehydration therapy (ORS) and zinc supplements. Therefore, this study evaluated the differential utilisation of ORS and Zinc supplements in the management of diarrhoea among under five children attending primary health care centres in Oyo State, Nigeria from 2017 to 2021. The researcher conducted a retrospective cohort study from 2017 to 2021 to evaluate the differential utilisation of ORS and Zinc supplements in the management of diarrhoea among under five children in Oyo State, Nigeria. Secondary analysis of the treatment data from selected primary health care centres in Oyo State was conducted from 2017 to 2021; the number of patients diagnosed of diarrhoea with their age group and treated with either ORS or zinc supplements on admission were analysed for each year at each of the PHC. A significant positive, near perfect correlation was found to occur between number of diarrhoea cases and ORS usage and age range (r= 0.983; p=0.01) and number of diarrhoea cases with Zinc usage (r= 0.914; p= 0.01); translating to the fact that ORS and Zinc usages increased with increased number of diarrhoea cases. Increase in ORS usage also positively correlates with usage of Zinc among the under five children. It was concluded that the most affected age group with the highest diarrhoea rate are children within 12-59 months. There is thus a need to improve the sensitisation of the use of oral rehydration therapy and zinc supplements by the health care workers in our Primary Health Care centres. Again, adequate preventive and control strategies should be put in place at the PHC, Local and State levels to improve on data reporting on cases of under-five diarrhoea disease.