INTRODUCTION:

Herbal remedies are a type of alternative medicine that originates from plants and plant extracts and used to heal illnesses, disease and address psychological concerns⁸. Herbal remedies have been used around for centuries, and were the precursor to modern medicine². Herbal remedies are obtained from a wide variety of natural resources including plant leaves, bark, berries, flowers, and roots. Health problems are frequently found ranging from minor physical or physiological peculiarities to the serious life - threatening illness.

Minor problems should not be ignored lightly without adequate assessment of conditions³. Early diagnosis and management of the serious problems help to overcome life-long disability and to reduce morbidity and mortality¹. In India under-five children constitute about 13% of the total population of India⁵.

Health of the under-five children in India is not satisfactory. Every year some 12 million children in developing countries die before they reach their fifth birthday⁴, many during first year of life. Seven in ten of these deaths are due to acute respiratory infections (mostly Pneumonia), diarrhea, measles, malaria, malnutrition or a combination of those illness⁹.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

A study to assess the knowledge and attitude regarding herbal remedies among mothers of underfive children in selected rural areas .

OBJECTIVES:

v To assess the level of knowledge regarding herbal remedies among mothers of underfive children.

v To assess the level of attitude regarding herbal remedies among mothers of underfive children.

v To find out the relationship between knowledge and attitude regarding herbal remedies among mothers of under five children.

v To find out the association of knowledge with selected demographic variables such as age of the mother ,educational level of mother, type of family ,occupation of the mother, religion, income of the family and source of information.

v To find out the association of attitude with selected demographic variables such as age of the mother ,educational level of mother, type of family, occupation of the mother, religion, income of the family and source of information .

HYPOTHESES:

H1: There will be a significant association between knowledge and attitude among mother's underfive children regarding herbal remedies.

H2: There will be a significant association of knowledge with selected demographic variables of the mothers such as age of mother, education level of mother, type of the family, religion, occupation of the mother, income of family members and source of information.

H3:There will be a significant association of attitude with selected demographic variables of the mothers such as age of mother, education level of mother, type of the family, religion, occupation of the mother, income of family members and source of information.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK:

The conceptual framework of this study was based on the Penders health promotion model (1984).

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

Research approach used for this study was Quantitative approach. Descriptive non experimental design was used to assess the knowledge and attitude regarding herbal remedies among mothers of underfive children. The study was conducted in selected rural areas of Verkilambi Panchayat. The population of the study consisted of all the mothers of underfive children residing in Verkilambi Panchayat. The sample comprised of 50 mothers of underfive children . Sampling technique used was convenience sampling technique.

DATA COLLECTION TOOL AND TECHNIQUE:

Based on the objectives, the tool was prepared with a vast review of literature and discussion with experts. The tool used for the study was a structured knowledge questionnaire to assess the level of knowledge and five point Likert scale to assess the level of attitude.

DESCRIPTION OF TOOL:

The tool used for the study consisted of 4 sections:

1. Section - I

It consisted of demographic data, which included the age, education, type of the family, occupation of the mother, religion, income of the family, source of information.

2. Section - II

This section comprised of structured questionnaire to assess the knowledge regarding herbal remedies which had 21 items. A score of ‘one' was allotted for every correct answer and ‘zero’ was allotted for every wrong answer. The total attainable score for the knowledge questionnaire was 21.

The score was converted into percentage and the resulting score was ranged as follows

Excellent -76-100%

Good -51-75%

Average -26-50%

Poor -0-25%

3. Section – III:

It consisted of 10 statements with scoring of five points such as strongly agree, agree, uncertain, disagree and strongly disagree. The score of positive statement ranged from five to one (strongly agree ‘5’,agree ‘4’,uncertain ‘3’,disagree ‘2’,and strongly disagree ‘1’) and the negative statement ranged from one to five(strongly agree ‘1’,agree ‘2’,uncertain ‘3’,disagree ‘4’, and strongly disagree ‘5’). The score was converted into percentage and resulting score was ranged as follows

Highly positive attitude - 81 to 100%

Positive attitude - 61 to 80%

Neutral attitude - 41 to 60%

Negative attitude - 21 to 40%

Highly negative attitude - 0 to 20%

DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE:

The data was collected by distributing the knowledge questionnaires and attitude scale to the mothers after giving proper instructions regarding the tool.

PLAN FOR DATA ANALYSIS:

Frequency, percentage, means and standard deviation was used for the descriptive data analysis. Chi-square was used to determine the association between knowledge and attitude of mothers of underfive children regarding herbal remedies and the selected demographic variables.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION:

Sample Characteristics:

Regarding the age, 28 (56%) of mothers were in the age group of 26-30 years. 12(24%) were 22-25 years, 7(14%) were 31-35 years and 3(6%) were 19-21 years. With respect to education, 33 (66%) had high school education, 9 (18%) had primary education, 8(16%) were graduates and were uneducated. With regard to type of family, 47(94%) were from nuclear family and 3(6%) were from joint family. Regarding the occupation, 31(62%) were house wives, 13(26%) were doing other works, 4(8%) were coolie workers and 2(4%) were professionals. With regard to religion 42(84%) of the mothers were Christians, 8(16%) were Hindus and none of them were Muslim. With regard to monthly income 18(36%) had income below 5000, 14(28%) had income between 5001-10,000, 10(20%) had income between 10,001-15,000, and 8(16%) had income above 15000.Regarding the source of information 12(34%) received information from community health nurse, 12(24%) from nursing student 12(24%) from media and 9(18%) had received. The data analysis was done based on the objectives and hypotheses of the study by using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Table – 1 Distribution of samples subjects based on the level of knowledge regarding herbal remedies N = 50

Level of knowledge	F	%
Excellent (76-100%)	0	0.00
Good (51-75%)	17	34.00
Average (26-50%)	23	46.00
Poor (0-25%)	10	20.00
Total	50	100

Table 1 shows that 46% of the mothers of underfive children had average knowledge, 34% had good knowledge, 20% had poor knowledge and none had excellent knowledge regarding herbal remedies.

Table : 2 Findings related to mean, standard deviation, percentage of knowledge regarding herbal remedies among the mothers of underfive children N=50

Overall knowledge	No of question	Min-max score	Mean	SD	Percentage
Overall knowledge	0-21	0-21	11.63	3.2	55.38

Table 2 shows that the mean knowledge regarding herbal remedies among the mothers of underfive children was 11.63 with standard deviation 3.2. The mean percentage level of knowledge was 55.38%.

Assessment of the level of attitude among the mothers under five children regarding herbal remedies.

Table – 3 Distribution of samples subjects based on the level of attitude regarding herbal remedies

Level of attitude	F	%
Highly positive (81-100)	3	6
Positive (61-80)	24	48
Neutral (41-60)	11	22
Negative (21-40)	7	14
Highly negative (0-20)	5	10
Total	50	100

Table 3 findings revealed that majority of the subject 48% had positive attitude, 22% of the subjects had neutral attitude, 14% had negative attitude, 10% had highly negative attitude, and 6% had highly positive attitude.

Table: 4 Findings related to mean, standard deviation, percentage of attitude regarding the herbal remedies among the mothers of underfive children=50

Overall attitude	No of question	Mini-max score	Mean	SD	Percentage
Overall attitude	10	10-50	28.69	4.73	57.38

Table 4 revealed that the mean attitude regarding herbal remedies among the mothers of underfive children was 28.69 with standard deviation 4.73.

The mean percentage level of attitude was 57.38. Regarding the association of knowledge score regarding herbal remedies and the demographic variables of the subjects found that there was no association between knowledge and demographic variables of mothers such as age (c²=3.93 df=12.59), type of family (c²=.783 df=5.99), occupation (c²=2.84 df=12.59) income (c²=3.451 df=12.59) and source of information (c²=6.053 df= 12.59).There was significant association between knowledge score and demographic variables of mothers such as education c²=13.6999 df=9.49) and religion (c²=7.42 df = 5.99).

The findings also revealed the there was no association between attitude score and demographic variables of mothers such as age (c²=14.252 df=21.03), education (c²=10.317 df=15.51), type of family (c²=.4.296 df=9.49), occupation (c²=12.82 df=21.03) religion (c²=4.88 df = 9.49) and income (c²=8.975df=21.03). There was significant association between attitude score and demographic variables of mothers with source of information c²=22.07 df= 21.03).

CONCLUSION:

Herbal medicine is a major component in all traditional medicine systems and a common elements in Ayurveda. Early diagnosis and management of the health problems in under five children help to overcome lifelong disability and reduce morbidity and motility. The present study has found that mother of under five children have good knowledge and favorable attitude regarding herbal remedies.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

I would like to thank my principal Dr. Mrs. Santhi Appavu, Ph.D (N) Christian College of Nursing Neyyoor for the tremendous effort and who has helped me to the midst of her terrific administrative responsibilities .I thank my guide Dr. Mrs. Diana, S.L Vice Principal, Department of Community Health Nursing for her guidance ,genuine concern, continued encouragement expertise and constructive suggestions throughout this study .My sincere appreciation goes to mothers of underfive children in Verkilampi Panchayat for being cooperative during the study.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST:

Nil

SOURCE OF FUNDING:

Self

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Received on 18.06.2014 Modified on 24.09.2014

Int. J. Nur. Edu. and Research 3(2): April-June, 2015; Page 105-108