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“It is good to take her early to the doctor” – mothers’ understanding of childhood pneumonia symptoms and health care seeking in Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Public Health, September 2017
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Title
“It is good to take her early to the doctor” – mothers’ understanding of childhood pneumonia symptoms and health care seeking in Kilimanjaro region, Tanzania
Published in
BMC Public Health, September 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12914-017-0135-1
Pubmed ID
Authors

Florida Muro, Judith Meta, Jenny Renju, Adiel Mushi, Hilda Mbakilwa, Raimos Olomi, Hugh Reyburn, Helena Hildenwall

Abstract

Pneumonia is among the leading causes of avoidable deaths for young children globally. The main burden of mortality falls on children from poor and rural families who are less likely to obtain the treatment they need, highlighting inequities in access to effective care and treatment. Caretakers' illness perceptions and care-seeking practices are of major importance for children with pneumonia to receive adequate care. This study qualitatively explores the caretaker concepts of childhood pneumonia in relation to treatment seeking behaviour and health worker management in Moshi urban district, Tanzania. In May - July 2013 data was gathered through different qualitative data collection techniques including five focus group discussions (FGDs) with mothers of children under-five years of age. The FGDs involved free listing of pneumonia symptoms and video presentations of children with respiratory symptoms done, these were triangulated with ten case narratives with mothers of children admitted with pneumonia and eleven in-depth interviews with hospital health workers. Transcripts were coded and analysed using qualitative content analysis. Mothers demonstrated good awareness of common childhood illnesses including pneumonia, which was often associated with symptoms such as cough, flu, chest tightness, fever, and difficulty in breathing. Mothers had mixed views on causative factors and treatments options but generally preferred modern medicine for persisting and severe symptoms. However, all respondent reported access to health facilities as a barrier to care, associated with transport, personal safety and economic constraints. Local illness concepts and traditional treatment options did not constitute barriers to care for pneumonia symptoms. Poor access to health facilities was the main barrier. Decentralisation of care through community health workers may improve access to care but needs to be combined with strengthened referral systems and accessible hospital care for those in need.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 166 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 166 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 32 19%
Student > Bachelor 18 11%
Researcher 17 10%
Student > Ph. D. Student 13 8%
Student > Doctoral Student 9 5%
Other 27 16%
Unknown 50 30%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 40 24%
Nursing and Health Professions 22 13%
Social Sciences 18 11%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 6 4%
Psychology 6 4%
Other 16 10%
Unknown 58 35%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 24 September 2017.
All research outputs
#20,663,600
of 25,382,440 outputs
Outputs from BMC Public Health
#15,165
of 17,517 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#253,572
of 326,430 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Public Health
#132
of 148 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,382,440 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 10th percentile – i.e., 10% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 17,517 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 14.4. This one is in the 6th percentile – i.e., 6% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 148 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 6th percentile – i.e., 6% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.