A cross-sectional survey by interviewing 1599 mothers having children under 5 years old was carried out at 4 provinces of the Mekong Delta, South of Vietnam, in June 1996. The results: the proportion of using health services at commune health stations was nearly similar with this at private sectors. The reasons for not seeking the commune health stations were far from the household, poor attitude of health workers, prolonged recovery time, lacking the diagnosis and treatment facilities, long waiting time. The rate of pregnant women having 3 prenatal checkups was low. 79.5% of children under 3 years old were followed up to measure weight and height. 64.5% of mother have used ORS packets when their children get diarrhoea.
Delivery of Health Care, Child, Mothers

The study was carried out at 30 communes in 3 districts of Can Tho province to assess basic knowledge on ARI, CDD and EPI among 534 enrolled mothers with children under 5 years old and/or being pregnant. The results showed that knowledge on child health care of these mothers was quite low. Only 5.9% of them could name all 6 common diseases of the EPI program. Signs of severe ARI such as tachypnea, rib-cage constriction, and stridor were recognized by a small proportion of mothers: 1.7%, 0.2% and 10.7%, respectively. Similarly, the low rates were in detecting the critical signs of diarrhea such as thirst, more frequent bowel movements, and bloody stool: 44.2%, 2.8%, and 5.6%, respectively. The authors also indicated that knowledge on child health care of mothers with lower education or living in poor households was lower than those with higher education or living in wealthier households.
Delivery of Health Care ; Child, Mothers

The research studied practice real situation basic skills in health care for children of mothers and analysed few of factors related to lacks of knowledge, attitude and practice of the mothers. Objects were mothers having under 5 years old children. The research used descriptive method. The result showed that: Mother’s knowledge and practice by these 12 skills at both provinces achieved is low level. There are differences between mothers’s knowledge and practice. The low level of these skills and the differences showed more significantly in mountainous province. The IEC activities in both provinces showed not effectively. Local health workers did not pay enough attention to IEC, especially to counseling mothers to care healthy and sick children.
Mothers ; Child ; Delivery of Health Care

The study was carried out at 30 communes in 3 districts of Thua Thien Hue province. 442 mothers who had children under 5 years old and/or being pregnant were involved to analyze for basic knowledge on ARI, CDD and EPI. Results showed that knowledge of mothers on child health care was limited: only 21% of them could name all 6 diseases of EPI program; signs of severe ARI such as tachypnea, rib-cage constriction, stridor were recognized by a small proportion of mothers (2.2% to 22.2%). Similarity was found with signs of severe diarrhoea such as thirst, frequent and bloody stool (3.8% to 24.2%). The authors also indicated that economical situations and education backgrounds were not revealed strong relation to knowledge on children health care of the mothers
Delivery of Health Care ; Child ; Knowledge ; Mothers

The purpose of this study was to identify therapeutic play need and the degree of the nurses's therapeutic play performances perceived by hospitalized children's mothers, and then to compare the difference between the degree of the need and perceived performances. The subjects of this study consist of 121 hospitalized children's mothers. A questionaire for this study was 29 item likert type 4 point scale developed on the basis of literature review, hospitalized children's mother interview and researcher's clinical experiences. Data was analyzed by Paired t-test, t-test, ANOVA & Duncan's comparison. Results of this study are summarized as follows : 1. The degree of the therapeutic play need was measured to be high (3.20). The degree of perceived therapeutic play need by five components were followed as : physiologic suffering relief & enhancing play (3.39), growth & development facilitating play (3.26), instructional play (3.24), emotional well-being promoting play (3.18) and providing play tool & environment(2.97). 2.The degree of the nurse's therapeutic play performances perceived by mothers was measured to be low (1.60). The degree of perceived performances of the therapeutic play by the five components were followed as : physiologic suffering relief & enhancing play (1.87), instructional play (1.74), emotional well-being promoting play (1.64), providing play tool & environment (1.44) and growth & development facilitating play (1.42). 3. The difference between the degree of the therapeutic play need and nurese's perfor mances perceived by hospitalized children's mothers were significant statistically (t= 38.54, p=.0001). Also, five components of therapeutic play were significant statistically (p=.0001). Therapeutic play has unique benefits among health care intervention for children. These findings will help in building of the theoretical framework of therapeutic play and enhancing the quality of nursing care for hospitalized children. Therapeutic play program for hospitalized children according to child growth & development and physiologic status are recommended to be developed.
Child ; Child, Hospitalized ; Delivery of Health Care ; Humans ; Mothers* ; Nursing Care ; Child Health

PURPOSE: This study was done to examine the importance of health promotion behavior for infants and toddlers as perceived by mothers of children in early childhood, and graduate students in nursing and to provide information for health promotion in early childhood. METHODS: This study was a cross-sectional survey research study. The participants were 91 mothers of children in early childhood, and 115 graduate students in nursing. RESULTS: The comparisons showed that graduate students in nursing reported higher perception of the importance health promotion behavior for infants and toddlers than did the mothers. In health promotion behavior, the highest score was in the category of safety. CONCLUSION: Providing information by nurses is necessary to promote health promotion behavior for mothers of children in early childhood. Therefore, it is important for healthcare professionals to develop effective programs for these mothers who want to promote good health promotion behavior in their children.
Child ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Delivery of Health Care ; Health Behavior ; Health Promotion ; Humans ; Infant ; Mothers ; Child Health

The purpose of this study was to explore the various aspects of the fatigue in the mothers of infants and toddlers in descriptive study. Three hundred eighty mothers who visited the public primary health care center in subrural area were enrolled from October, 2001 to June, 2002. Data were collected using a questionnaire titled "Symptom Table on Fatigue Perception" designed by the Fatigue Research Committee of Japan, consisted of a total 30 items categorized into three subdimensions: the physical, the psychological and the neuro-sensory. SPSS was used for the analysis of data with 0.05 of significance. The results were as follows: 1. The mean average fatigue score of subjects was 1.81(SD:.41): the physical fatigue revealed the highest value with a mean of 1.92(SD:.50), followed by psychological fatigue with a mean score of 1.79(SD:.48), neuro-sensory fatigue with a mean of 1.72(SD:.44). 2. With the respect to the general characteristics of subjects, there were statistically significant differences in the mothers' fatigue perception by with or without a job or not(t=2.213, p=.028), the number of children(t=-2.157, p=.032), the degree of spouse support in domestic households(F=3.315, p=.045), the degree of spouse support in the care of children(F=12.616, p=.000), and the amount of sleeping time(t=.130, p=.000). These results suggest that health care professional need to be aware of the persistent presence of the maternal fatigue related to the child rearing and the factors worsen the degree of the fatigue.
Child ; Child Rearing ; Delivery of Health Care ; Fatigue* ; Humans ; Infant* ; Japan ; Mothers* ; Primary Health Care ; Spouses ; Child Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore the fatigue of the mothers of the hospitalized children's mothers in descriptive study. METHOD: Two hundred eighty three mothers who take care of the hospitalized children in three University hospitals were enrolled from June, 1 to October, 30, 2003. Data were collected using a questionnaire titled "Symptom Table on Fatigue Perception" designed by the Fatigue Research Committee of Japan, consisted of a total 30 items categorized into three sub-dimensions: the physical, the psychological and the neuro-sensory. SPSS was used for the analysis of data with 0.05 of significance. RESULT: 1) The mean average fatigue score of subjects was 1.94(SD:.48): the physical fatigue revealed the highest value with a mean of 2.19(SD:.57), followed by psychological fatigue with a mean score of 1.85(SD:.52), neuro-sensory fatigue with a mean of 1.79(SD:.51). 2) With the respect to the general characteristics of hospitalized children and mothers, there were statistically significant differences in the mothers' fatigue perception by the child sex(t=-2.697, p=.008), the character of child(F=9.032, p=.000), the child condition compared to pre-hospitalization(F=3.523, p=.031), with or without support in domestic households(t=-1.981, p=.049), the amount of sleeping time(t=2.704, p=.007), and with or without of night-time sleep disturbance because of the child hospitalization(t=2.082, p=.038). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that health care professional need to be aware of the persistent presence of the maternal fatigue related to the child hospitalization and the factors worsen the degree of the fatigue.
Child ; Child, Hospitalized ; Delivery of Health Care ; Fatigue* ; Hospitalization ; Hospitals, University ; Humans ; Japan ; Mothers* ; Child Health ; Surveys and Questionnaires

The Mother and Child Act is the most important law set up to maintain and improve maternal-child healthcare. This act was established in 1973 and was revised to improve maternal-child healthcare. This act includes the establishment and management of a maternal-child healthcare center in the district, a maternal-child regional healthcare center in the province, and a national maternal-child medical center. In the baby boom era, maternal-child healthcare centers provided maternity care and delivery services as well as emergency obstetrical management, but those centers stopped providing maternity care in the low birth-rate era. The last revised act included the establishment of a national maternal-child medical center to care for the increase in the number of high-risk pregnancies. This review briefly evaluates the goals and roles of a maternal-child healthcare center and a national maternal-child medical center according to the Mother and Child Act, and integrates high risk pregnancies with a neonatal care center to renovate the maternity healthcare system.
Child ; Delivery of Health Care ; Emergencies ; Humans ; Jurisprudence ; Mothers ; Population Growth ; Pregnancy ; Pregnancy, High-Risk

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to explore the use of mobile applications about pregnancy, birth, and child care among pregnant women and to review the characteristics, contents, and credibility of the applications used by these women. METHODS: This study was cross-sectional and was conducted using a survey method. One hundred and ninety-three pregnant women participated in this study. The questionnaire was developed to examine the pattern and reasons for pregnancy-related application usage. The 47 mobile apps used by participants were reviewed and categorized based on functions and developers. The credibility of the information provided by the mobile applications was evaluated using a structured measurement. RESULTS: Fifty-five percent of the participants were using mobile apps related to pregnancy, birth, and/or child care. First-time mothers used the apps significantly more often than women who were pregnant for the second time. Women who had used a smartphone for a longer period of time were more likely to use apps related to pregnancy, birth, and/or child care. The most frequently-used information concerned signs of risk and disease during pregnancy. Experts' quick opinions and Q&A formats related to diet and medication administration during pregnancy were the women's most cited need for content in applications. Information was the most common function of the apps. In the evaluation of information credibility, the 'information source' category had the lowest score. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed that applications related to pregnancy, birth, and child care have become an important information source for pregnant women. To fulfill the needs of users, credible applications related to pregnancy, birth, and child care should be developed and managed by qualified healthcare professionals.
Child Care* ; Child* ; Delivery of Health Care ; Diet ; Female ; Humans ; Mobile Applications* ; Mothers ; Parturition* ; Pregnancy* ; Pregnant Women ; Surveys and Questionnaires