Study area and design
The study was a community-based descriptive cross- sectional study, and carried out on mothers of Sekota town, which is located in the Amhara region. The data collection period was from February 15 – March 10/2019. Sekota town is known for a water shortage, which is a cause for poor hygiene and sanitation practices. Sekota town has two urban kebeles, and both kebeles were included in this study.
Sampling and study population
Sample size determination and sampling procedure
The sample size, which is 384 was determined using single population proportion formula: [n= Z2α/2 *(P (1-P)/d2]. The population proportion used for calculation from the previous study was (p=52.3%) (15). While calculating the sample size, 10% none-response rate, 95% CI and 5% margin of the error was considered. Simple random sampling technique with proportional allocation was used to include 384 mothers, who have children aged between 2 and 6 years old from both urban kebeles of Sekota town.
Data collection
A pretested and structured interview-based questionnaire were developed in the English and then translated to Amharic, and re-translated to English version to record and analyze the demographic data, and data allied with knowledge, attitude and practice of mothers. This back and forth translation were checked by research experts and senior researchers to keep consistency the questionnaire. All the questions were developed in considering prevention and control methods of intestinal parasitic infestations.
Assessment of maternal knowledge, attitude, and practice
Mothers who had children from two years to six years were interviewed for 5 knowledge, 7 attitudes, and 11 practice questions. The knowledge questions’ scoring methods were performed as per Guttmann Scale. The attitude questioners were prepared in Likert scales type of questioning and reported in such fashion. But the practice questions were formulated in ordinal scale, that weighted out of 11. In all of these sections, mothers were asked about types of intestinal parasites, mode of transmissions, symptoms of intestinal infestations, methods of prevention and control, and infestation complications.
Each mother was interviewed in their local language using closed-ended questions. The data collectors selected from the study area and collected the data under the supervision of the researchers.
Eligibility criteria: mothers with their children, aged 2 to 6 years and lives in Sekota town at least for 6 months were included. Mother-child pairs whose children took standard treatment for intestinal parasites in the last 6 months. Mothers with their children lived at least 6 months in this study area to be included in this study.
Exclusion criteria: Mother-child pairs whose children didn’t take standard treatment for intestinal parasites in the last 6 months and mothers who had seriously ill children were excluded.
Data analysis
The questionnaires were entered into epi-data version 4.2.0.0 and transferred to SPSS version 23 software for analysis. Frequency and cross-tabulation were used to summarize descriptive statistics of the data. The level of maternal knowledge, attitude and practice were reported as percentage and presented in tables.
Data quality
For each step standard operational procedures (SOP) were followed. The socio-demographic questionnaire was pretested on 5% (20 mothers) of the sample in Woldia town. The measurement techniques used for the data of knowledge, attitude, and practice were also validated and pretested before the actual data collection in Woldia town. The interview guide was edited accordingly for actual data collection. The data was checked for its completeness, and missing information at each point by all investigators and data collectors. The data collectors were also taking a one-day refreshment training.
Operational definitions
Pre-school children: children whose age is between the first day of year 2, and completed 5 years but not attending their 6 years of birthday.
Intestinal parasites: are parasites that can infect gastrointestinal tracts of the human body.
Attitude: assessment of mothers’ opinion or thought about intestinal parasitic infestations, its prevention and control methods
Positive attitude: mothers who responded below the median value for attitude questions, that was 15 in this study
Negative attitude: mothers who respond above the median value for attitude questions, that was 15 in this study
Knowledge: assessment of what mothers described intestinal parasitic infestations, its prevention and control methods.
Knowledgeable: mothers who scored above the median value for knowledge questions, that was 2 in this study
Non-knowledgeable: mothers who scored below the median value for knowledge questions, that was 2 in this study
Practice: assessment of the mother’s actual exercises to prevent and control intestinal parasitic infestations
Good Practice: mothers who scored above the median value for practice questions, that was 14 in this study
Poor Practice: mothers who scored below the median value for practice questions, that was 14 in this study
Kebele: is the smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia. Each kebele consists of at least five hundred families, or the equivalent of 3,500 to 4,000 persons.