AHAIC Kenya Myths and perceptions on diarrhea and use of ORS/zinc among mothers and caregivers of under five years old children among a nomadic community in Kenya

Introduction Diarrheal disease: second leading cause of death in CU5 in Kenya Dehydrates leaving the body without the water and salts necessary for survival Community and individual perceptions and attitudes influence the decisions and practices in prevention and management Paper focuses on these amongst the nomadic Maa community in Kenya AMREF Kenya

Methods Qualitative study Data collected from 42 key informants and 12 FGDs with caregivers of CU5 The transcriptions for the twelve voice-recorded FGDs were entered into the MAXQDA version 11 qualitative analysis programme (which browsed through them to retrieve segments under each thematic coding derived from the study objectives) AMREF Kenya

Results Myths and perceptions grouped based on dominant and unifying themes (causation, prevention, and treatment) Causation: teething, breast feeding while pregnant; having too much sex while breast feeding Prevention: use of special herbs and deworming tablets protects children from diarrhea AMREF Kenya

Results Ctd… Treatment: -herbs mixed with either blood or alcohol work better than the modern drugs in management – The laibons (herbalists) and traditional birth attendants were the main sources of the herbal medicines – There was no consensus on the use of ORS in diarrhea treatment AMREF Kenya

Conclusions Among the Maasai, there are myths and perceptions on the causes of diarrhea, and on ways of prevention and management Interventions aimed at the effective management of diarrhea in children should take account of such myths and perceptions AMREF Kenya

Special thanks to: WHO (TA) MOH (National and Narok South) MI (Funding) To You All for Listening Co-Authors AMREF Kenya