Knowledge and treatment seeking behaviour of mothers regarding worm infestation and its prevention

Worm infestation is one of the most common infections among children. Almost every alternate child, under the age of five, suffers from this ailment. The WHO had estimated that more than 25% of the world's population is infected with worms.

This study was intended to assess the knowledge and treatment seeking behaviour of mothers regarding worm infestation and its prevention in selected rural areas of district Faridkot, Punjab.

A descriptive study was conducted on mothers having children in age group of 1–6 years in village Machaki Kalan of district Faridkot, Punjab. Sample size was 250 mothers. Purposive sampling technique was used. A structured interview schedule to assess the knowledge and a semi-structured interview performa to assess the treatment seeking behaviour of mothers regarding worm infestation and its prevention was used.

The results showed that maximum, i.e. 44% of mothers had average knowledge, followed by 30% had poor and rest 26% of mothers had good knowledge regarding worm infestation and its prevention. Regarding treatment seeking behaviour, 45.6% of mothers scored average, followed by 43.6% scoring poor and 10.8% of mothers scoring good. The co-relation between knowledge and treatment seeking behaviour was highly significant. A statistically significant relation was found between knowledge and age of mother, type of family, number of children and source of information. A statistically significant relation was found between treatment seeking behaviour and age of mother and number of children.

The findings of the study revealed that 44% of the mothers were having average knowledge and 45.6% of the mothers had average treatment seeking behaviour regarding worm infestation and its prevention. The corelation was highly significant between knowledge and treatment seeking behavior.