Care-seeking and treatment for sick children—Insights for improving malaria, family planning, and maternal and child health outcomes in northwestern Nigeria through social and behavior change programming

This brief provides rigorous evidence-based insights to implementers and researchers of social and behavior change (SBC) programs that seek to improve knowledge, attitudes, norms, and behaviors for caretakers of young children. The brief focuses on care-seeking and treatment behaviors for sick children. It summarizes the barriers and facilitators to seeking care from formal medical sources and receiving appropriate diagnosis or treatment for children under two years of age with symptoms of fever, diarrhea, or cough with fast or difficult breathing. It is one of a series of briefs that present findings from a Breakthrough RESEARCH study on a wide range of psychosocial drivers of behavioral outcomes in family planning (FP), malaria, and maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition (MNCH+N). The results presented in this series can inform the improvement of women\u27s and children’s health programming in Nigeria and help achieve the objectives of the National Strategic Health Development Plan II (2018–2022), as well as support global efforts to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)