Mother`s health care-seeking behavior for children with acute respiratory infections in a post-earthquake setting

Background Delayed health care-seeking behavior is a cause of high mortality in children due to acute respiratory infections (ARIs). Factors that may affect health care-seeking behavior are socioeconomic status, maternal age, maternal education, parents’ perception of illness, child’s age, number of children under five years of age in the family, and occurrence of natural disasters. The 2006 Central Java earthquake damaged homes and health care facilities, and led to increased poverty among the residents.Objective To assess the relationship between socioeconomic status and mother’s health care-seeking behavior for children under five years of age with ARIs in a post-earthquake setting.Methods This cross-sectional study used secondary data obtained from the Child Health Need Assessment (CHNA) survey. Logistic regression test was used to analyze variables that may affect mother’s health care-seeking behavior for children under five years of age with ARIs.Results Of the 665 infants surveyed, 442 infants (66.5%) had ARIs. Health care-seeking behavior was good (81.7%) in the majority of mothers. We observed that socioeconomic status did not affect maternal health care-seeking behavior for children under five with ARIs (OR 1.33; 95%CI 0.79 to 2.24; P=0.26). Maternal age, maternal education, child’s age and gender, number of children under five in the family, parents’ perceptions of illness and severity of house damage caused by the earthquake also had no effect on maternal health care-seeking behavior for children with ARIs.Conclusion After the 2006 earthquake, we find that socioeconomic status, maternal age, maternal education, child age, child gender, number of children under five in the family, parents’ perceptions of illness, and severity of house damage have no effect on mother’s health care-seeking behavior for their children with ARIs. [Paediatr Indones. 2013;53:144-9.].