ArticleBMJ open2020
'I also take part in caring for the sick child': a qualitative study on fathers' roles and responsibilities in seeking care for children in Southwest Ethiopia.
Article in BMJ open, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Barriers and facilitators of parental healthcare-seeking for sick young infants with possible serious bacterial infection in Ethiopia: a qualitative study using a socio ecological model.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- The role of community-based volunteers in integrating interactive playful parenting interventions for early childhood development in rural community systems for health in Zambia: a qualitative study.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- Caregivers' lived experiences of childhood probable pneumonia through a gendered lens in western Kenya.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2025Article
- Effects of masculine culture on the mental health of Northern Sotho male youth.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Father participation in the care of a critically ill child: a scoping review.Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da U S P · 2025Article
- Parenting Interventions to Prevent and Reduce Physical Punishment: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Article
- Formative research to inform the future design of a multicomponent fatherhood intervention to improve early child development in Mwanza, Tanzania.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2023Article
- Exploring the knowledge, attitudes, and practice towards child eye health: A qualitative analysis of parent experience focus groups.PloS one · 2023Article
- Fathers' experiences of childcare and feeding: A photo-elicitation study in a low resource setting in urban Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.PloS one · 2023Article
- Association between WASH-Related Behaviors and Knowledge with Childhood Diarrhea in Tanzania.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesFathers play an important role in household decision-making processes and child health development. Nevertheless, they are under-represented in child health research, especially in low-income settings. Little is known about what roles fathers play in the care-seeking processes or how they interact with the health system when their child is sick. This study aimed to understand Ethiopian fathers' roles and responsibilities in caring for their children when they are or become ill.
designQualitative study using semistructured interviews with fathers.
settingThis study was conducted in three rural districts of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region of Ethiopia.
participantsTwenty-four fathers who had at least one child between 2 and 59 months who visited a health extension worker with fever.
resultsThe overarching theme of this study was 'changing perceptions of paternal responsibilities during children's ill health'. It constituted three subthemes, namely, 'fathers' burden of earning money for care', 'fatherhood entails advocating children's healthcare needs' and 'investing in children's health can benefit the family in the future'. Fathers described that they were the ones mainly responsible for the financial arrangement of care and that this financial responsibility can involve stress when resources are scarce. Fathers knew what health services were available and accessible to them and were involved in different ways in the care seeking of the child. Changes in the importance ascribed to child health were expressed by fathers who described being more alert to children's ill-health.
conclusionFathers play various roles in the care-seeking process during children's illness episodes. This included, for instance, arranging resources to seek care, (co)-deciding where to seek care as well as accompanying the child to the health facility. The inability to organise necessary resources for care can lead to involuntary delays in care seeking for the child. This demonstrates the importance of including fathers in future interventions on maternal and child health.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.