Effectiveness of primary health-care nurses in the promotion of oral rehydration therapy in a rural area of Nigeria.

Using a pre- and post-intervention method, this study evaluates the effects of verbal instructions and demonstration by the primary health-care nurses on knowledge, attitude and practice of home management of childhood diarrhoea by mothers in a rural area of Nigeria. Although the proportion of mothers that knew how to prepare and give oral rehydration therapy (ORT) increased significantly from 6.2 to 47.0%, few (9.5%) were practising it during subsequent episodes of diarrhoea. The use of starvation by the mothers also decreased significantly from 43.0 to 8.2% however the use of traditional medicines and medicines from chemists did not show any significant change. The beliefs that sugar worsens diarrhoea, that home-made ORT was not a medicine, and continued reliance of the mothers on traditional healers and medicine dealers for advice were factors constraining adoption of the ORT by the mothers. For effectiveness, therefore, the educational programmes of the nurses should also be directed at the traditional healers and the medicine dealers.