Childhood illnesses mostly treated at home in Solomon Islands

Childhood illnesses mostly treated at home in Solomon Islands

A study showing sick children in the Solomon Islands are mostly treated at home has implications for child health care in remote Australia, according to a University of Queensland researcher.

For his thesis with the Australian Centre for International and Tropical Health and Nutrition (Tropical Health Program) at the University of Queensland, Dr William Parks examined the way caregivers dealt with children's illnesses in Marovo Lagoon, East New Georgia region of the Solomon Islands.

Dr Parks' study found that parents consulted or visited clinics on less than 20 percent of the occasions when their children became sick. Eighty percent of the time they chose to treat illnesses including malaria, fevers, pneumonia, cough, diarrhoea or popome (oral thrush) at home, Dr Parks said.

He said the study's results suggested a rethink in the way child health services were delivered to people in remote areas.

"My study suggests clinic staff should be visiting villages far more often rather than expecting villagers to come to them," he said.

The study is the first known investigation of lay child health care - how illness is recognised and the types of treatments used by household caregivers - in Melanesia.

Its methodology and findings are relevant to health professionals and social scientists involved in the design and delivery of health services in developing countries and remote areas of developed countries including Australia.

Dr Parks, a Tropical Health Program lecturer and international health consultant, presented hypothetical child illness cases to 85 household caregivers in 12 villages throughout the region. He also interviewed traditional healers and local health staff in the East New Georgia Region of the Solomon Islands.

The purpose of this section of the study was to gauge how caregivers recognised and explained illness, how they treated cases and the basis for such choices, he said.

He also closely monitored actual treatment choices made by caregivers of 125 children from 16 villages over a six-month period. All children involved in the study were aged under five.

Marovo Lagoon is the largest saltwater lagoon in the world and is regarded by some as the Earth's eighth natural wonder. The main activities of the area's 14,000 people are subsistence agriculture and fishing. The Solomon Islands has a population of 400,000 spread over six major islands and 992 archipelagos covering an area of one million square kilometres.

Dr Parks' study also showed that many home remedies were partly composed of modern pharmaceuticals people had stored from previous clinic visits such as antibiotics and chloroquine (for treating malaria).

"This finding suggests that rather than denying villagers knowledge about modern drugs, there should be more instruction on their safe home use," he said.

Other remedies involved traditional herbal treatments such as ?kungo' in which rainforest leaves were crushed and spoon-fed to children.

He said, contrary to popular opinion, traditional beliefs and practices (?kastom') were not the primary barriers to the use of modern medicine - people preferred to use home-kept pills and clinics when these were readily available.

"A big deterrent to parents taking their children to clinics is the geographical distance they must travel. There is also a degree of shame attached to a caregiver not only admitting a child is ill but having to negotiate transport to get him or her to a clinic," he said.

Dr Parks recently presented his thesis findings to the Solomon Islands' Ministry of Health and Medical Services, the Western Provincial Services health authorities responsible for the Marovo Lagoon area and other interested parties including non-government organisations.

For more information, contact Dr Parks (telephone 07 3365 5377 or 07 3861 1620 or email
WillP@acithn.uq.edu.au).