Health Services' Profile Introduced to under Five Rural Egyptian Children: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Children under 5 years of age represent 11.1% of total Egyptians with a mortality rate of 22/1000 live births in 2013. Family health centers are the first gates that provide them with health services. This study aimed to evaluate the health care services introduced to under 5 children in one of the rural family health centers in Egypt called Shawa family health center (SFHC) during 2012-2013. Subjects and Methods: This is a cross sectional descriptive and analytic study, conducted in SFHC, and included two phases. Phase I: Records of births, antenatal care, immunization, well-baby and sick child visits to the clinic for the year 2012 were reviewed. Phase II: Data were collected using a structured pretested questionnaire. Findings: Antenatal care coverage rate was 57.8% of the visits, while neonatal examination accounted for 98.6%. Thyroid screening rate was 94.5%, while immunization coverage rate was 98.9%. No vitamin A supplementation was provided. The commonest health problems among this age group of children were respiratory tract infection (67.9%) and gastrointestinal problems (15.2%); 11.3% gastroenteritis and 3.9% parasitic infestation. The mean age of participating mothers was 26±2.4 years, 89% of them were < 35 years of age, 97% were currently married, 75% were of secondary or lower educational level and 91% belonged to families that have income < 1200 Egyptian pound / month. Over 80% of the mothers were satisfied with the service they received. Younger mothers, of income <1200 Egyptian pound /month and having greater than a secondary education were significantly more satisfied. Conclusion: SFHC fulfills most services recommended for children under 5 years of age. However there is shortage in some other services (e.g. low rates of antenatal and natal care, reluctance in application of integrated management of childhood illness (IMCI) program and non documentation of health education activities).