Abstract
Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) build up guidelines for the integrated management of childhood illnesses (IMCI) in the health facilities to improve the recognition and the individual management of the common reasons of death among children under the age of five. The approach used in outpatient clinical settings with restricted diagnostic and therapeutic tools. Aim of study: To assess the impact of implementation of IMCI strategy, in reducing an inappropriate prescription of antibiotics and raising vaccination coverage. Patients and methods: A cross-sectional study design was arranged, where 395 child with age from two months up to below 5 years old attending Al Hadbaa PHCC from 1st of January to 31st of March 2014 suffering from one or more of the following respiratory infection, diarrheal diseases, throat infections, ear infections and fever. The children assessed separately by two clinics, "A" non-adopting IMCI and "B" adopting IMCI guidelines, the Mc-Nemar test was applied and differences were evaluated. Results: The attendant children are 239 males and 156 females complaining from fever (39.1%), throat problems (21.4%), ear problems (12.6%), cough (11.6%), diarrhea (11.1%) and pneumonia (4.2%). The overall use of antibiotics is 66.1% in clinic "A" and 21.0% in clinic "B" with p-value 0.000. Regarding the immunization, the outcomes appear to have very high significant difference 54.1% in "A" and 75.7% in "B". Conclusion: The classification-approach to the sick child using IMCI guidelines has clear effect on decreasing an inappropriate use of antibiotics and raising number of vaccinated children, which justifying the adaptation of this strategy.
