| Abstrakt: |
A study has been made of the attitudes of 193 mothers with children aged 0–5 years to an “under‐five clinic.” The clinic served one geographical area in the Usambara Mountains of Northeast Tanzania, comprised of two distinct populations, dissimilar in religion and socio‐economic conditions. Attendance and motivations were compared with respect to the age of the mother, the school education of both parents and the occupation of the father. Fifty six percent of all the women went to the clinic, most of whom were from the Muslim and more traditionally oriented part of the village. The others most likely to use the clinic were women aged 25–44 years, illiterate mothers, and women from families with a regular cash income. The under‐five clinic was rejected mostly by mothers from the Christian influenced part of the village mothers over 45 years of age, women with some school education, and wives of craftsmen. The two most important reasons for participation in the clinic were the wish for regular examination of the child and surveillance of his weight. Health control as a motive was given primarily by women whose ages were below 24 and above 45 years and educated mothers. Surveillance of weight was a motivation in over one third of the mothers visiting the clinic. Of these, 48 percent were illiterate, and fifty percent were from families whose husbands were employees with a low income. A motivation pattern for reasons against clinic attendance was difficult to elucidate. The majority of reasons offered seemed to be aimed at obscuring the real reasons for rejection. Over half of the mothers who gave as a reason that the child was too old, had children below the age of four. The majority of these mothers were above 35 years of age and had a school education of 5 years or more, or had husbands who belonged to the occupational group which included white collar jobs and traders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] |
