Evaluation of IMNCI Practices among Health Care Providers in a District of North India

Objective 1. To study the adherence of HSPs to IMNCI guidelines for managing childhood diseases. 2. To ascertain the knowledge regarding danger signs of under fives’ in study population Material and Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out in a district of Panchkula in 2010. Multistage random sampling was used for selection of study population. 588 parents of under-five children were interviewed by using a pretested validated questionnaire. The data regarding adherence health workers to IMNCI guidelines for management common under fives illness was collected from parents. Data entry and analysis was done using SPSS 16.0. Result: IMNCI strategy was implemented in the district of Panchkula in 2007. In 2010 we assessed the adherence of health care providers to IMNCI guidelines in two blocks of Panchkula for managing under-five children. Three fourth of the children were examined by health care providers for acute respiratory infections among which respiratory rate was counted for full one minute in only 50% of the children. Regarding adherence to fever management 94% of the children were checked for temperature, 60% examined for neck stiffness and 31.4% of children’s mothers were enquired about rash. Regarding adherence to diarrhea management of the 93.3% of the children who were assessed for dehydration, only 40 % children were advised to take extra feeding/ extra fluids, 66 % were advised to take ORS. Conclusion: Adherence of IMNCI guidelines for management of under five children was not satisfactory after implementation IMNCI.