Factors affecting mothers' healthcare-seeking behaviour for childhood illnesses in a rural Nigerian setting

Appropriate healthcare-seeking behaviour could prevent a significant number of child deaths and complications due to ill health. Improving mothers' care-seeking behaviour could also contribute in reducing a large number of child morbidity and mortality in developing countries. This article aims to determine factors affecting healthcare-seeking behaviour for childhood illnesses. Cluster sampling technique was used with a number of clusters proportional to population size. Mothers used self-care with home remedies in 53.2-69.6% of reported episodes of illnesses. The use of health facility for childhood illnesses was consistently low (5.7-9.9%). Appropriate care was sought by only 25.3% mothers. Mothers' income, education, child gender, number of symptoms and illness severity were the predictors of careseeking behaviour.