Factors affecting mothers’ healthcare‐seeking behaviour for childhood illnesses in a rural Nigerian setting

Appropriate healthcare‐seeking behaviour could prevent a significant number of child deaths and complications due to ill health. Improving mothers’ care‐seeking behaviour could also contribute in reducing a large number of child morbidity and mortality in developing countries. This article aims to determine factors affecting healthcare‐seeking behaviour for childhood illnesses. Cluster sampling technique was used with a number of clusters proportional to population size. Mothers used self‐care with home remedies in 53.2–69.6% of reported episodes of illnesses. The use of health facility for childhood illnesses was consistently low (5.7–9.9%). Appropriate care was sought by only 25.3% mothers. Mothers’ income, education, child gender, number of symptoms and illness severity were the predictors of care‐seeking behaviour.