Author/Editor		Zhang, Yanfeng; Wu, Qiong; van Velthoven, Michelle HMMT; Chen, Li; Car, Josip; Li, Ye; Wang, Wei; Scherpbier, Robert
Title		Care-seeking and quality of care for outpatient sick children in rural Hebei, China
Type		članek
Vol. and No.		Letnik 54, št. 6
Publication year		2013
Volume		str. 541-549
ISSN		0353-9504 - Croatian medical journal
Language		eng
Abstract		Aim To assess the quality of outpatient pediatric care pro - vided by township and village doctors, prevalence of com - mon childhood diseases, care-seeking behavior, and cov - erage of key interventions in Zhao County in China. Methods We conducted two cross-sectional surveys: 1) maternal, newborn, and child health household survey including1601 caregivers of children younger than two years; 2) health facility survey on case management of 348 sick children younger than five years by local health work - ers and assessment of the availability of drugs and supplies in health facility. Results Our household survey showed that the prevalence of fever, cough, and diarrhea was 16.8%, 9.2%, and 15.6% respectively. Caregivers of children with fever, cough, and diarrhea sought care primarily in village clinics and town - ship hospitals. Only 41.2% of children with suspected pneu - monia received antibiotics, and very few children with di - arrhea received oral rehydration solutions (1.2%) and zinc (4.4%). Our facility survey indicated that very few sick chil - dren were fully assessed, and only 43.8% were correctly classified by health workers when compared with the gold standard. Use of antibiotics for sick children was high and not according to guidelines. Conclusion We showed poor quality of services for outpa - tient sick children in Zhao County. Since Integrated Man - agement of Childhood Illness strategy has shown positive effects on child health in some areas of China, it is advis - able to implement it in other areas as well.
Keywords		outpatient treatment sick children rural China ambulantno zdravljenje bolnih otrok podeželje Kitajska