Abstract:

Health care seeking in terms of illness behavior refers to those activities undertaken by individuals in response to symptom experience. The patriarchal nature of Nigeria family system burdens the woman with childcare in addition to other responsibilities. Maternal response to child illness often determines the survival status, but the promptness of this response is determined by several factors both at individual and household level. This study explored the knowledge and factors affecting child health care seeking behaviour among mothers attending immunization clinic at Urban Comprehensive Health Centre, Eleyele, Ile-Ife.

This descriptive study selected two hundred respondents using convenience sampling technique. Structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents. Special package for social sciences was used to analyze the data collected for this study.

A major striking finding reveals that majority (64.3%) of the mothers has poor knowledge and a larger proportion (82.6%) with negative attitude towards child’s health care seeking. The socio-demographic differential of mothers seeking health is also a significant finding. Majority of the mothers are on the lowest wealth quintile, earning less than 20,000 per month. This seems inadequate to seek quality health care service and might be responsible for their negative attitude. It is therefore necessary for all health-care providers to channel their effort towards increasing awareness campaign about the benefits of positive health care seeking. Women should be empowered in order to boost their economic status. Nurses should also play the advocacy role for free health services or highly subsidized health care expenses.

Keywords: Child, Determinants, Mothers, Health-Care, Seeking, Behaviour.

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