Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to find out the availability, adequacy and utilization of child health services in Primary Health Care Centres in Nsukka Health District, Enugu State. To achieve the purpose of the study, eight specific objectives with corresponding research questions were posed and five hypotheses postulated to guide the study. The Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. The population for the study consisted of 3882 mothers (3666) and health service provider (216). The multi-stage sampling procedure was used to draw a sample of 474 mothers (366) and health providers (108) for the study. The instrument for data collection was the availability, adequacy and utilization of child health services questionnaire (AAUCHSQ) designed by the researcher. Cronbach’s Alpha statistic and Kuder Richardson 20 (KR-20) were used to establish the reliability of the instrument. Means and percentage were used to analyze descriptive data, while null hypotheses were tested using t-Test, Chi-Square and ANOVA statistics. The criterion mean for adequacy and utilization was 2.50. The major findings of the study were as follows: All the child health services were available in primary health centres, All the child health services were adequate ( = 2.98, SD = .92). Mothers of different level of education utilized child health services effectively (no formal education ( = 2.93) primary education ( = 2.80), secondary school education ( = 2.85) tertiary education ( = 2.81)). Mothers of different occupation utilized child health services effectively farming ( = 2.67), trading ( = 2.81), public/civil servant ( = 2.89), cloth weaving/hair dressing ( = 2.82), house wives ( = 2.81) and student ( = 2.67). Mothers in both urban ( = 2.96) and rural ( = 2.65) utilized child health services effectively. All the components of child health services were available in both urban and rural primary health centres. All the child health services were adequate in both urban ( = 3.14) and rural ( = 2.96). There was no significant difference in the level of utilization of child health services according to level of education at .05. There was significant difference in the level of utilization of growth monitoring services and immunization services according to level of education. There was no significant difference in the level of utilization of; growth monitoring, curative services, ORT and immunization services while there was significant difference in the level of utilization of nutritional services according to mothers’ occupation. There was no significant difference in the level of utilization of growth monitoring, nutritional services, curative services and immunization service according to residential location of mothers. There were significant differences in the level of availability of growth monitoring, nutritional services, curative services, ORT and immunization services. There was also no significant difference in the level of adequacy of growth monitoring, nutritional services and immunization services according to mother’s residential location while there were significant difference in the level of utilization of curative services and ORT according to residential occupation of mothers. The researcher recommended that government should see that primary health centres are located equally in both urban and rural areas, and that health workers should strengthen their teaching on the utilization of all the components of CHs especially growth monitoring and curative services.
