Pneumonia Perception Project-Pakistan

Pneumonia and recurrent wheeze contribute extensively to under five childhood morbidity and mortality in Pakistan. Among the avoidable causes of death due to these diseases, delayed care seeking is a major one whereby around 38% of deaths due to acute respiratory illnesses occur in households. Of these cases which die due to delayed care seeking, majority are taken for healthcare after 2 days of initiation of symptoms with around 30% been given antibiotics at home before seeking healthcare. Around 32% of these cases die at home, 48% in hospitals, 9% en route, and the 11% in clinics or health centres.This could be due to lack of time, lack of funds for healthcare, lack of decision making on the part of the mother or improper carer perception of the seriousness of the condition. Thus there are various cultural, social, personal and religious factors which affect the care seeking behaviors of caregivers for these illnesses. Understanding these aspects of delayed care seeking is critical to develop effective intervention strategies to reduce disease related mortality. We, therefore, aim to establish an understanding of perception of under-five pneumonia and recurrent wheeze among caregivers of children under five along with associated factors of delayed care seeking in selected communities in Pakistan. The results of this study will permit us to design an effectiveness study which can be used by program managers and policy makers to develop program strategies to reduce childhood deaths due to delayed care seeking for these diseases.