Factors Influencing Caregivers’ Acute Diarrhea Prevention Behaviors in Pediatric Patients at Trang Hospital

Abstract

Acute diarrhea (AD) is one of the most common infectious diseases and the leading cause of deaths in children worldwide, including Thailand. This study aimed to identify predictive factors associated with AD preventive behaviors among caregivers of children under five years of age. The participants were 77 caregivers of pediatric patients with AD who were admitted at Trang Hospital in Trang Province, Thailand. Research instruments were four questionnaires about  perceptions including perceived susceptibility for AD occurrence, perceived severity of AD, perceived benefits of AD prevention, perceived barriers of AD prevention, and the AD preventive behaviors questionnaires. The instruments’ content validity and reliability were assessed and showed good internal consistency and reliability with Cronbach’s alphas equal to .83, .82, .85, .87, and .87 respectively. Additionally, the instruments for AD preventive knowledge and information sources on AD yielded internal consistency and reliability with KR-20 values of .72 and .79.  Descriptive analysis, ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and stepwise multiple regression were used to analyzed the data. The findings showed that the mean AD preventive behaviors score of participants was 17.49 (SD = 1.84). Additionally, the AD preventive knowledge, perceived susceptibility for AD occurrence, and perceived barriers of AD preventive AD preventive behaviors among this particular group were R² = .576, F (1, 76) = 63.586, p < 0.01. Therefore, nurses should develop care plans to enhance caregivers’ AD preventive knowledge and perceived susceptibility for AD occurrence in order to reduce AD incidence in children, as well as help caregivers reduce the barriers to AD preventive practices.