Do Children Receive Appropriate Treatment for Childhood Burns in the New Juaben Municipality of Ghana? Implications for Reducing Complications with the Use of Home-Based Care

Abstract

The thrust of the this paper is to determine whether children are receive appropriate treatment for burns at home and to explore the treatment seeking behaviour for this injury in the New Juaben Municipality of Ghana. Cross – sectional descriptive design using both the quantitative and qualitative techniques of collecting data was used. The research sample consisted of 600 respondent and 24 key informants drawn from 12 out of the 52 communities in the Municipality. Sample was collected using simple random sample technique. The data was collected from October 2010 to July 2011. The results indicate that children receive inappropriate first aid and treatment for burns at home. This calls for alternative treatment practices which include clinical care by health professionals.

Keywords: treatment for burns, home-base treatment, complications in treatments at home, child hood burns, burns care.