Abstract:
This research was a study using predictive research design. Aimed to investigate
factors predicting maternal behavior in preventing infant diarrhea. The predictive
factors comprised perceived susceptibility of diarrhea, perceived severity of diarrhea,
perceived benefits of practice, perceived barriers of practice, self-efficacy in diarrhea
prevention, maternal age, family income, and maternal years of education. The sample
was composed of 130 mothers of children aged 4 – 12 months who received medical
services at the Pediatric Outpatient Department and Well Baby Clinic of
Chaoprayayommaraj Hospital, Suphanburi Province. Data were collected by
questionnaire and were analyzed using multiple regression analysis.
The results of this study show that average score of the overall maternal
behavior in preventing infant diarrhea was 1.66 (S.D. = 0.20), of which the best
behaviors compared to the others were the use of lids or proper containers to cover
food, cupboards to prevent exposure to flies, and feeding freshly cooked food to
children. Self-efficacy in diarrhea prevention was the only significant predictor
explaining the variance of maternal behavior in preventing infant diarrhea by 31.5% at
the statistically significant level of 0.01.
It is recommended that nurses should develop interventions to enhance
mothers’ self- efficacy for prevention of diarrhea in their children, in addition to the
usual health education