This s tudy on the effect of he alth education on casernmanagement of acute respiratory illness (ARl) amongrnmothers or other care givers of under five children wasrndone in Sululta Awraja which is one of the ruralrndistricts of Addis Ababa Administrative Region in therncentral part of Ethiopia. The aim of the study was torndetermine the incidence of ARl and to compare thernknowledge, beliefs, attitudes and practices of mothers ofrnunder five children before and after an intervention ofrnacute respiratory illness (ARl) specific and generalrnhealth education.rn540 households were selected randomly from threernFarmers'Associations which are found within fivernkilometres radius of a health center. Mothers or otherrncare- givers werernattitude, beliefsrnbaseline surveyrninterviewed about their knowledge,rnand practices. One week after thernARl specific health education wasrnconducted in one Farmers' Association, general healthrneducation was given in the second community and no healthrneducation in the control Farmers' Association. Thernintervention and the control communities were selectedrnrandomly. The health education was given monthly for fourrnmonths. Fortnightly visits to both interventionrncommunities were carried out to determine incidence. Atrnthe end of the four months maternal knowledge, attitudes,rnixrnbeliefs and practices were assessed by questionnaire.rnPractice was verified with health institution records.rnThe study showed that the incidence of ARI and acuternlower respiratory illnesses episodes were 13.9 and 7.4/rn100 children /four months. The occurrence of ARI was tworntimes higher in children under one year of age asrncompared to children 1-4 years. The percent change inrnmaternal knowledge, attitude, beliefs and practice afterrnARI specific health education was 30.4%, 51.9%, -.75% andrn68% respectively. The percent change in maternalrnknowledge, attitudes, practices and beliefs after generalrnhealth education intervention were -33.4, 66.3%, 64 andrn-5.2% respectively. 75% of the Mothers or other caregiversrnof under five children from the ARI specificrnhealth education communities brought their sick childrenrnwith ARI to the health center as compared to only 30.7%rnfrom the general health education intervention community.rnNo change was observed on the knowledge,rnatti tudes, practices and beliefs of mothers or other caregiversrnof under fives in the control community.rnThe study showed that ARI is common in under fivernchildren and the risk of ARI is much higher in under onernchildren. The study also showed ARI specific healthrneducation is effective in changing the knowledge,rnattitudes and practices of care-givers and general healthrneducation is effective in changing attitudes.