KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES OF MOTHERS TOWARDS HOME ACCIDENTS AMONG CHILDREN, MAKKAH, KSA

Mohamed O. Nour*, Waheeb D. Alharbi, Sallahaldeen M. Alawneh, Abdullah Z. Al Ansari, Ahmed D. Al–Luqmani, Abdallah F. Alharbi, Muhannad A. Sonari, Hani K. Al–Hassani and Abdualaziz H. Al–Malki

ABSTRACT

Home injuries among children are increasingly seen as a community health problem that could be prevented through increased awareness, safe practices and improvements in home environment. Preschool children are extremely vulnerable to home accidents and ensuring information for mothers about safety measures in home accidents has an important impact on reducing incidence of injuries among children. This study aimed to assess the baseline knowledge, attitude and practices of the studied mothers towards home accidents among their children. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 368 mothers attending outpatient pediatric clinics at Maternity and Children Hospital in Makkah Region. A self-administered questionnaire was created that included socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude and practices of mothers towards home accidents. All scores were graded as good, fair or poor. Health education messages were conducted to mothers. The results of the study showed that about two third of participants (63.28%) depended on social media as a source of knowledge about home accidents. More than one third (35.9%) had poor knowledge, about 38% had positive attitude and less than one third (29%) had proper practices about home accidents. There was no significant difference between KAP scores of mothers and their ages. However, knowledge and attitude scores were significantly favorable among working mothers and those with University education. Mothers who attended first aid training and had history of child injury at home were significantly more knowledgeable and had proper practices. Participants with higher family income had significant proper practices. Protecting children from domestic injury is a multi-dimensional approach. It needs an intervention to overcome knowledge gap and improve attitude and practices of mothers in addition to joint Governmental and community efforts.

Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude, Practices, Home accidents.