Caregivers' Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Regarding Diarrhoea in Children under Five Years Old in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Integrative Narrative Review

Background: Diarrhoeal diseases constitute a significant burden on the health and growth of children the world over. Globally, diarrhoeal conditions remain the second leading cause of death among children under 5. Knowledge, attitudes and practice of caregivers are at the heart of diarrhoeal disease prevention and proper management.

Objective: This review aimed to assess caregivers' knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding diarrhoea in children under five years old in sub-Saharan Africa, as discussed in the literature.

Design: Integrative narrative review

Data Sources: The review saw an extensive search on two electronic databases. Search results were screened using inclusion and exclusion criteria. At the end of the screening, 37 studies were included in the review.

Review Methods: Inclusion criteria: Only studies whose focus was on caregivers’ knowledge, attitude and practice relating to diarrhoea in children under five were included. Also, only publications reported in the English Language were considered, and publications must have been between 2010-2020. Additionally, the methodological quality of studies was assessed using the Down & Black (1998) checklist for quality evaluation in a systematic review.

Results: In this review, it emerged that studies in Sub-Saharan Africa indicate that caregivers display poor overall knowledge about diarrhoea. Also, the attitudes of caregivers towards diarrhoea prevention and treatment was low in many studies. On care practices, prevention practices, and management/treatment practices, including ORS and Zinc usage, were mainly reported to be quiet.

Conclusions: The review concluded that there are poor levels of knowledge, attitude and practice of managing diarrhoea among caregivers of children under five (5) years of age in sub-Saharan Africa. The researchers recommended continuous health education to address knowledge gaps of mothers about diarrhoea, its prevention and treatment according to international standards.