Home based care practices by caregivers of under five children with febrile illness seen at the general out-patient clinic at the National Hospital, Abuja

Background: Home treatment for childhood febrile illness is a common practice among caregivers in Nigeria as well as some other countries in sub- Saharan Africa. The aim of the study was to assess the home based care practices of caregivers of under- five children with febrile illnesses as seen in the general paediatric outpatient unit of National Hospital Abuja (NHA).Methods: A cross sectional study of consenting caregivers of 200 under five febrile children presenting at the GPOPD NHA was done. Systematic random sampling technique was used. An interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect relevant data and thick blood smears were examined for malaria parasite. The data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science Software version 13.Results: Of the 200 participants, 200 (100%) responded fully to the questionnaire while 184 (92%) agreed to have finger prick for malaria parasitaemia estimation. Children between 1-2years had the highest incidence of fever accounting for 50% of the patients. The commonest cause of febrile illness which accounted for 39.1% (72) of cases was malaria. Distance from the patient's home to the health facility and long waiting time in the health facility were the causes of delayed access to health facility care. (P-value of <0.050).Only 23 (11.5%) children were brought to the hospital within 24 hours of noticing fever, and 15 (7.5%) were brought without any home intervention. Most respondents, 133 (66.5%) administered paracetamol, non-chloroquine based anti-malarial and other orthodox drugs available at home. Home based care was found to significantly improve patient outcome (x2 =21.343, P-value 0.02).Conclusions: The commonest cause of febrile illness among under- five children in the GOPD of National Hospital Abuja was malaria. Major home based care administered were available drugs at home and use of drugs from patent medical vendors. The outcome of the interventions was subjective and showed that majority of the patients had significant clinical outcome.Keywords: Under-fives, febrile illness, malaria, home treatmen