Knowledge about childhood diarrhea among mothers: A systematic review of 2020 onwards

Abstract

Background: Childhood diarrhea is still a challenge in healthcare, and mother’s knowledge about it can play a vital role in its management. Recent reviews to assess mother’s knowledge may help in future strategies. Objective: To review the mother’s knowledge about the management of diarrhea. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted using studies available free and in full on the internet and reported using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Statement (PRISMA) guidelines. All original studies that were freely available were included. Google Scholar was used for searching for relevant articles. BOOLEAN search criteria were tried using the AND and OR operations for specific terms. The data was entered in a Microsoft Excel document with the same heading as in the table. Results: A total of 15 studies were shortlisted and published from 2020 onwards. The Knowledge was very varying, ranging from 5.6% to 82.2% with statistical significance. Conclusion: The knowledge of mothers is quite varied about childhood diarrhea, even in recent literature. More studies should be done to find risk factors for such variation, and awareness campaigns should be given to increase knowledge among mothers, as they are the primary caregivers for their children.

Keywords: Childhood diarrhea, knowledge, mothers, prevalence, management