Healthcare-seeking practices of caregivers of under-five children with diarrheal diseases in two informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya

In Kenya, diarrhea is among the leading causes of childhood mortality, despite being easy to prevent and treat, it causes about 1.5 million under-five deaths annually. Adverse health outcomes due to diarrheal diseases are worse in slums, however they are preventable with appropriate and prompt healthcare-seeking.The study aims at exploring the healthcare-seeking practices of caregivers with under-five children in two slum settlements in Nairobi, Kenya. Specifically to identify care-seeking practices of caregivers of under-five children with diarrhea; determine the prevalence of appropriate healthcare-seeking practices and identify socio-demographic factors associated with care-seeking practices of caregivers.The study uses data from a project nested into the Nairobi Urban Health and Demographic Surveillance System, which collected information on morbidity for children reported to be ill over the last 2 weeks preceding the survey. Results show that healthcare-seeking practices for diarrhea remains a great challenge among the urban poor with more than half (55%) of the caregivers seeking inappropriate healthcare. Use of ORS and Zinc supplements which are widely recommended for management of diarrhea is very low. The critical predictors of healthcare-seeking identified are duration of illness, place of residence and the child’s age