Abstract
Background:- Diarrhea is the most common pediatric disease and it is the second leading cause of death among children after pneumonia. To demonstrate the best home care for children with acute diarrhea in our community, we need to evaluate the awareness and the practice levels of the parents towards diarrhea in children and its home management. Objectives:-To identify the awareness and practice of the parents about acute diarrhea and its home management in under 5 years old children . Subjects and Method:-A cross sectional study was carried out on a convenient sample of 340 parents of under 5 years old children attended the Primary Health Centers of Hilla Health Sectors. The data was collected during the period from 1st April 2023 to 31st August 2023 using a questionnaire that was based on the review of literature of closely related articles with modifications to be compatible with the study. Results:-This study has found that about 23.8% of the parents who have children under five years attending primary health care centers in Hilla health sectors had poor information about acute diarrhea in children while 45.9 % had good information and 30.3 % of them their information was medium. Regarding practice, there was 29.7 % of the parents had a poor level ofpractice, 22.1% had a medium knowledge and 48.2% had a good practice level. Also, there was a significant association between knowledge level and practice level P value (0.0001).Conclusions:-Parents’ educational status, being mothers, having higher monthly income, having more than one child below 5 years and having child more than one year in age were associated with better awareness and practice toward diarrhea and its management in children at home