ABSTRACT

Background: Acute respiratory infection (ARI) is considered one of the common causes of morbidity and mortality in children that results in high economic cost. It is a serious problem that causes 4.5 million deaths among children every year in developing countries. In Pakistan, acute respiratory tract infections are responsible for 20-30% of all deaths among children under the age of 5 years.

Aim: To assess the effectiveness of an educational intervention on mothers’ knowledge towards the prevention of acute respiratory tract infection in children under five years of age.

Method: This study involves a pre-test and post-test research design to evaluate the effectiveness of education. 60 mothers of under-five children were selected by a convenient sampling method in rural community Lahore to participate in the study. Data was collected through an adopted questionnaire and analyzed by applying paired T-test to see differences in means.

Results: In this study pre-test knowledge score was 1.974 and after the educational intervention, the mean score was 2.081. The present study revealed that the p-value was significant. The findings of this research show the positive impact of educational interventions on knowledge towards the prevention of acute respiratory tract infections among mothers of children under five years of age.

Conclusion: Educational sessions were effective to improve the knowledge regarding the prevention of acute respiratory tract infection. Such awareness would be beneficial for community residents for the prevention of infectious diseases.