Knowledge and attitude regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries among mothers of under-five children in Paediatrics units at Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences,

Puducherry

Alwyna Sandy¹, Anne Jenefer. G², Aarthika R¹, Aarthy D¹, Abirami S¹, Anargha Santhosh¹,

Ann Mary¹, Anna Jeena¹, Anupriya K¹, Arathi Ittiel¹, Archana A¹

¹UG Students, College of Nursing, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry, India. ²Assistant Professor, Department of Paediatric Nursing, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry, India.

*Corresponding Author E-mail: annejeneferg@gmail.com

ABSTRACT:

Introduction: Children are like butterflies. They really love to explore the living surroundings they live. The environment they live has many potential hazards. Unintentional injuries are mainly responsible for many injury and death in children especially under five children. But most of the potential risks can be avoided if the parents of under five children are aware of the risk factors in their surroundings and children should be properly taken care by their parents. There are many causes of injury and death among children but most of the leading causes are Drowning, Falling, Burns, Choking and Poisoning. Educating and giving awareness to parents about the preventive measures which should be adopted to prevent these injuries can save the children especially under five thereby reducing the mortality rate upto 90 percentage. Statement of Problem: A Study to Assess the level of Knowledge and Attitude regarding Home safety measures on unintentional injuries among mothers of under- five children at Paediatric units, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry. Objectives: 1. To assess the level of knowledge and attitude regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries among mothers of under five children. 2. To find out the association between level of knowledge and attitude regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries among mothers of under five children with selected demographic variables. Methodology: Data was collected over a period of one week in march 2020.Exploratory research approach is used in this study and descriptive research design is used to assess the knowledge and attitude regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries among mothers of under five children. Mothers of under five children who fulfil inclusion criteria were selected using Purposive Sampling Technique and the sample size is 67. Data was collected using structured questionnaire. The data collected will be analysed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. Fisherman exact test was used to test the association between level of knowledge regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries among mothers of under five children with selected demographic variables. Results: In the present study, level of knowledge of mothers of under five children regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries revealed that 21(31.34%) were having inadequate knowledge, 37(55.22%) mothers were having moderately adequate knowledge, 9 (13.43%) mothers were having adequate knowledge regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries. The level of attitude of mothers of under five children regarding home safety measures revealed that 67(100%) of the mothers were having favourable attitude regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries. Conclusion: The researchers gave health education leaflets to all the mothers of under-five children in order to improve the knowledge of the mother so that risks of unintentional injury can be reduced thereby reducing mortality rate of under five children.

KEYWORDS: Knowledge, Attitude, Prevention, Unintentional injury, Homesafety measures, Mothers of under five children

INTRODUCTION:

“Today’s children are the citizen of tomorrow” Children deserve to inherit a safer, fairer and healthier world. A child’s world centres around the home, school and the community. Life cannot be risk-free, but most household accidents can be prevented by utilizing a household safety list to ensure safety of children.¹Every child has the right to grow up in healthy environment. Children are prone to encounter more risk when developing their cognitive, perceptual and motor abilities in day to day life. According to world report, every year around 8, 30,000 children die from unintentional home injuries. To draw attention to this important public health problem and possible solutions, WHO and UNICEF have produced this World report on child injury prevention with support from many experts.²Formal and informal education is one of the cheapest methods to prevent household accidents among children. Behavioural changes and skill training programs can reduce household injuries to a greater extent.³ Among children age 1 to 4 drowning is the leading cause of an unintentional injury related death followed by motor vehicle occupant injury pedestrian injury fire and burns airway obstruction.⁴According to the Child Accident Prevention Foundation of Australia, private homes top the list of places where children are likely to experience injuries. In fact for children under age of 5, home injuries account for half of unintentional death. 3 out of 4 are obstruction injuries, because children’s airways are so small that children can easily choke food or other small objects which could make the children at greater risk .A serious burn or scald can kill a child. Children under 4 years old are most at risk particularly those aged between one and two years.⁵

Hence, this study is carried out to assess the level of knowledge and attitude regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries among mothers of Under-five children, so that suitable interventions could be suggested for enhancing maternal home safety practices depending on the type of injury.

OBJECTIVES:

1) To assess the level of Knowledge and Attitude regarding home safety measures on Unintentional injuries among mothers of under-five children.

2) To find out the association between level of Knowledge and Attitude regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries among mothers of under-five children with selected demographic variables.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Research approach:

An exploratory approach was considered appropriate for the present study

Research design:

Descriptive design was considered appropriate

Setting of the study:

This study was conducted in Paediatric units at

Pondicherry Institute of medical sciences, Puducherry, a unit of madras medical mission, Chennai

Population:

It includes mothers who have children between 1month 1day -5 years.

Sample:

samples are mothers of under-five children who are attending paediatric units at Pondicherry Institute of medical sciences.

Sample Size:

sample size is 67 mothers of under-five children at paediatric units at Pondicherry Institute of Medical Science.

Sampling Technique:

Purposive sampling technique was used in this study.

Inclusion criteria:

1) Mothers of under-five children, who can understand and speak Tamil / English language.

2) Mothers who have either male or female children.

3) Mothers who have any number of under five children

Exclusion criteria:

1) Mothers who have children diagnosed with Cerebral palsy, Mental retardation and other genetic disease.

2) Mothers who have babies between 0-1month .

DESCRIPTION OF TOOL:

Structured questionnaire is used to assess the level of knowledge and attitude regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries among mothers of under-five children.

SECTION A- Demographic variables:

It consists of demographic characteristics which includes; Age of mother and child, Educational status of mothers and father, Occupation of mothers and father, Family Income, area of residence. Number of children, Care taker of children, Type of family, Location of house, Type of house, Type of floor, Number of rooms, Type of stove, Type of furniture, Storage of water at house, Pets in house, Shelf with drawers in house, Pits or well near the house, Garden near the house, Water source near the house.

Section:

B-Structured questionnaire to assess the level of knowledge regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries among mothers of under-five children

Structured questionnaire consist of 20 knowledge questions regarding home safety measures on

unintentional injuries. Each question has got 4 options. One correct answer and other three are distracters. One score is allotted for correct answer and zero for wrong answer. Total score is 20.

Table No: 1

Knowledge level	Score	Percentage
Adequate knowledge	>15	>75%
Moderately adequate knowledge	10 – 15	50-75%
Inadequate knowledge	<10	<50%

Section – C- 5 point likert scale to assess the attitude regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries among mothers of under -five children.

A 5 point Likert scale is used to assess the attitude

RESULTS:

Distribution of level of knowledge of mothers of under five children regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries at paediatric units, P.I.M.S.

Table No.: 3 n=67

Level of Knowledge	Frequency (n)	Percentage (%)
Inadequate Knowledge (<10)	21	31.34
Moderately Adequate Knowledge (10-15)	37	55.22
Adequate Knowledge (> 15)	09	13.43

Table 3: shows that 21(31.34%) mothers were having inadequate knowledge, 37 (55.22%) were having

regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries. It consists of 10 statements. Maximum score is 50.

Table. No.: 2

State ment

Stro

ngly agree

Agree

Un decided

Dis agree

Strongly

Dis agree

Positive

Negative

Favourable attitude : 25-50 (50%-100%)

Unfavorable attitude : <25 (<50%)

Validity of Tool:

The tool along with the objectives was submitted to the experts to establish the content validity. The experts were requested to give the opinion and suggestions regarding the relevancy, adequacy, and appropriateness of the tool for further modification Suggestions were taken and final tool was prepared.

RELIABILITY OF THE TOOL:

The reliability of an instrument is the degree of consistency with which it measures the attribute it is supposed to be measured.

The tool after validation was subjected to test for its reliability. The result was established using interrelated test method and it was found that the tool is reliable.

Data Collection Process:

The study was conducted after obtaining permission from the concerned authorities. Data collection period was for one week. Mother of under- five children who fulfil inclusion criteria was selected using purposive sampling technique. The investigator introduced herself to the participants and explained the purpose of conducting the study. Nature and purpose of the study was explained to the participants and informed consent was obtained. Instruction about tool was explained and data was collected using structured questionnaire. Average time for each participant was 15 to 20 minutes.

moderately adequate knowledge, 9 (13.43%) were having adequate knowledge regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries.

Distribution of level of attitude among mothers of under five children regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries at Paediatric units, P.I.M.S.

Table 4: n=67

Level of Attitude	Frequency (n)	Percentage (%)
Favorable Attitude (25-50)	67	100
Unfavorable Attitude (<25)	0	0

Table 4: shows that 67(100%) of the mothers were having favourable attitude regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries.

Findings related to association between level of Knowledge regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries among mothers of under-five children with selected demographic variables.

The fisher’s exact test revealed that at p>0.05 there is significant association between level of knowledge and monthly family income and type of stove.

DISCUSSION:

The study results show that 21(31.34%) mothers had inadequate knowledge, 37 (55.22%) mothers had moderately adequate knowledge and 9(13.43%) mothers had adequate knowledge regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries. In attitude, 67(100%) mothers had favourable attitude regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries.

Similarly a study was conducted by Mohamed A. Megahed, Nora A. Khalil et al (2015) “a study to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of rural mothers towards home injuries among children under 5 years of age in Menouf district – Menoufia government, Egypt”. A total of 270 mothers were selected as samples. The findings revealed that 64.8% of mothers had unsatisfactory knowledge and 35.5% of mothers had satisfactory knowledge about causes of home accidents,

28.2% of mothers had satisfactory knowledge and 71.8% of mothers and unsatisfactory knowledge about prevention of home injuries. So this study shows that mothers in Bejirem district did not have enough knowledge regarding causes, prevention and first aid of these injuries.

Fisherman exact test was used to find the association between knowledge regarding home safety measures on unintentional injuries among mothers of under-five children with selected demographic variables. The result showed that there is statistically significant association between knowledge and selected demographic variable like monthly family income and type of stove. There is no statistically significant association between knowledge and selected demographic variable like age of mother, age of child, education and occupation of mother, education and occupation of father, area of residence, number of children, caretaker of children, location of house, type of family, house, floor, number of rooms, type of furniture, water storage facility, education on safety measures, rodent/insect bites and pits near the house.

A similar study was conducted by Suguna T.C. et al., (2015) on “Women’s awareness about domestic accidents among toddlers, Sree Mookambika College of Nursing, Kulasekharam, Kanyakumari District, Tamilnadu”. Sample size was 300.the findings of the study revealed that Knowledge on domestic accidents had significant association with age of the women, religion of the women, and family’s monthly income of the women.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

· The study can be conducted on large samples

· The study can be conducted among different socioeconomic groups to identify the level of knowledge and attitude regarding home safety measures on unintentional home injuries.

· A comparative study can be conducted to identify the level of knowledge and attitude regarding home safety measures on unintentional home injuries among working and non- working mothers.

· The study can be conducted to identify the level of knowledge and attitude regarding home safety measures on unintentional home injuries among fathers of under-five children.

· A comparative study can be conducted to identify the level of knowledge and attitude regarding home safety measures on unintentional home injuries among mothers in rural and urban areas.

REFERRENCES:

1. Nanthini subbiah. Knowledge of mothers on prevention of childhood accidents. The Nursing Journal of India, 2006; 229-231.

2. Dinesh Sethi et al., European report on child injury prevention. World Health Organization, 2008.

3. Fajriyeh Zahedinia et al., Mothers knowledge, attitudes and performance towards household accidents at home in children 1-5 years old; An intervention study. National Journal of Physiology, Pharmacy and Pharmacology, 2018; 1-6.

4. www.pubmed.com

5. Polit D.F and Hungler B.P. Essentials of Nursing Research, Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott Company; 5^th Edition; 1995; 36.

Received on 08.02.2021 Modified on 31.05.2021

Int. J. of Advances in Nur. Management. 2021; 9(4):347-350.

DOI: 10.52711/2454-2652.2021.00080

Alwyna Sandy1, Anne Jenefer. G2, Aarthika R1, Aarthy D1, Abirami S1, Anargha Santhosh1,

Ann Mary1, Anna Jeena1, Anupriya K1, Arathi Ittiel1, Archana A1