ABSTRACT 

Oral rehydration therapy is a simple fluid replacement technique which does not require special medical assistance in its usage in treating dehydration due to diarrhoea and has been lauded as one of the significant medical innovations of the 20th century. This study aims at assessing the knowledge and use of oral rehydration therapy among mothers in the University of Benin Teaching Hospital and Egor Health Centre. A descriptive cross-sectional survey research design was adopted and a well-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 193 mothers in these facilities. The results of the study showed that about 2.6% of the respondents have poor level of knowledge, 10.4% have fair knowledge and 87% have good knowledge of oral rehydration therapy. The extent of use was found to be satisfactory as 68% of respondents reported appropriate use of oral rehydration therapy. The study also identified occurrence of childhood diarrhoea, ability to prepare ORS and children’s dislike of the taste of ORS as factors that influenced the use of oral rehydration therapy. The researcher concluded that there is good level of knowledge and satisfactory extent of use of oral rehydration therapy among respondents. There is need to reinforce educational programs in the health facilities in order to sustain and further promote the knowledge and use of oral rehydration therapy among mothers and comparative studies can be conducted among mothers from other health facilities in Benin-City.

Keywords: Knowledge, Use, Oral rehydration therapy, Diarrhoea.