Knowledge and practice on prevention of home accidents among primary caregivers of under- five year children in pediatric wards, at Teaching Hospital Batticaloa

Abstract

All across the world, home accidents are the main factor contributing to avoidable injuries and fatalities in children and adolescents. In the last few years, there has been a rise in child fatalities from injuries as opposed to a decline in those from infectious and chronic illnesses. Home accidents are primarily caused by falls, fires, burns, choking, suffocation, poisoning, wounds and lacerations. All children are vulnerable to harm because of their innate curiosity, impulsivity, and desire to learn new skills, as well as the fact that they imitate adult behaviour from an early age. Hence, over the age of one-year children`s home accidents are one of the biggest causes of death. Although there are risks in life, most household accidents can be avoided by having clear knowledge to take certain safety precautions. This study mainly focuses on knowledge and practices on prevention of home accidents among primary care givers of under five children. This study aimed to assess the knowledge and practice on prevention of home accidents among mothers and caregivers of under-five year children in pediatric wards at Teaching Hospital Batticaloa (THB). A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in pediatric wards at teaching hospital, Batticaloa among 245 primary caregivers of children. The participants were selected through a complete enumeration. After obtaining written consent from the participants, data were collected using a pre-tested, validated interviewer administered questionnaire and their overall knowledge and practices regarding home accidents were measured based on their individual scores. Collected data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences-version 26 (SPSS version-26). Descriptive statistics were utilized to answer the objectives. A total of 245 respondents were interviewed and 181 of them were mothers of under-five children. The majority of the participants are from the nuclear family (48.6%) and reside in rural areas (63.7%). The majority of the primary caregivers (60.8%) did not have any past home accidents. The finding of our study revealed that only 7.8% (n=19) of the participants had good knowledge regarding the prevention of home accidents while 35.9% of participants had poor knowledge. There was a significant association between knowledge and relationship, caregiver’s age, child age, type of family and income. The percentage of satisfactory knowledge regarding prevention was 35.9% (n=88). The overall practice on prevention of home accidents was fair (68.6%). Around 11% of participants were identified with poor practices hence 20% of participants had good practices. There was a significant association between practice on prevention and relationship, caregiver’s age, education, child age, income and living environment. The overall practice on prevention during home accident was only (4.9%) of the respondents were identified with good practice. About three out of four portion (75.5%) of respondents (72.3%) had fair practice and rest of them (19.6%) had poor practice regarding prevention during home accident. There was a significant association between practice during home accident and income. There was a significant association association between knowledge and practice during home accident. Hence, knowledge and practice on prevention were not significantly associated. Primary caregivers of under-five age children were having poor knowledge regarding prevention of home accidents while their practices on prevention of home accidents and practices during home accidents were fair.