Caregivers knowledge and utilization of child health services in an Urban District of Lagos, Nigeria.

Background And Objectives: Child health, growth and development can be affected by the level of knowledge of caregivers and utilization of available child health care services. The study objectives was to assess the knowledge and pattern of utilization of child health care services among caregivers of children under 5 years attending Primary Health Care (PHC) centres and factors influencing their utilization in Ejigbo Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Lagos State, Nigeria.

Methods: A descriptive cross sectional design was used. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to obtain information from 148 caregivers of children under 5 years attending the three PHC facilities in the LCDA. Caregivers were selected by systematic random sampling method. Data entry and analysis was done using Epi InfoTM statistical software.

Results: The mean age of caregivers was 30 years (± 7.10 SD), about 53 percent are married, 74 percent had at least secondary school education, 43 percent are traders and 75 percent had access to media facilities. About 70 percent of mothers demonstrated good knowledge of preventive health services, less than half (46.3%) reported correctly the use of curative services and 88 percent were satisfied with the quality of care received. There is an association between caregivers education, occupation and their knowledge of use of curative services (p-value <0.05 in both).

Conclusion: This study concludes that the knowledge and use of preventive services among respondents is above average, while fewer respondents used curative services which were influenced by education and occupation of respondent in Ejigbo, LCDA.