Parents’ Attitudes and Adherence to Unintentional Injury Prevention Measures in Ankara, Turkey

Journal Title: Balkan Medical Journal - Year 2017, Vol 34, Issue 4

Abstract

Background: Childhood unintentional injuries are perceived as a leading public health issue since they are one of the preventable causes of paediatric mortality and morbidity. Whether and how parental factors are related to childhood injury has been researched insufficiently. Aims: To investigate parents’ attitudes to preventive measures of unintentional childhood injury, and the parental adherence to these measures. Study Design: Cross-sectional, descriptive study. Methods: The data were collected from the parents of children younger than ten years of age admitted to university hospital outpatient clinics for any reason and who agreed to be involved in the study. The first part of the questionnaire included sociodemographic profiles of participating children. Serious injuries were considered to be any injury that requires hospital admission. The second part of the questionnaire was prepared to evaluate parents’ adherence to injury prevention rules. A total score calculation about the adherence of the parents to the injury prevention rules was worked out the addition of the scores of each answer given in each age group. Answers for each item given by the parents were scored as wrong (0), sometimes (1) or correct (2). The score for each item was added and the result normalized to 100 points. Only complete questionnaires were used for analysis. Results: A total of 1126 children and parent pairs agreed to participate in the survey. It was found that 13.8% of the participating children had experienced at least one serious injury. Although three-quarters of the parents had received information about injury prevention, the overall injury prevention scores were found to be low. As children’s age increased, the total injury prevention scores of parents decreased significantly. Injury prevention scores were shown to increase significantly with high education and maternal occupation. However, scores were shown to decrease significantly with increased child age and family size. Conclusion: Our study shows that parental adherence to the child safety measures aimed at decreasing the unintentional injury risk of children is not satisfactory in Turkey. In particular, parents of 5-9-year-old children, big families (more than five people), parents with less than 8 years of education and non-working mothers should be the main target groups for intervention strategies according to our study results.

Authors and Affiliations

Tolga İnce, Songül Yalçın, Kadriye Yurdakök

Keywords

Related Articles

The Clinicopathologic Spectrum of IgG4-Related Disease

Immunoglobulin G4-related disease is a fibroinflammatory systemic disease that is characterized by focal or diffuse organ infiltration by immunoglobulin G4-bearing plasma cells. Immunoglobulin G4-related disease may affe...

Pyrrolidine Dithiocarbamate Attenuates Cardiocyte Apoptosis and Ameliorates Heart Failure Following Coronary Microembolization in Rats

Background: Nuclear factor-kB is highly activated in cardiovascular disorders. However, few articles have targeted at the role of nuclear factor-kB inhibitor in heart failure. Aims: To evaluate the effects of nuclear fac...

The Prevalence and Risks of Inappropriate Combination of Aspirin and Warfarin in Clinical Practice: Results From WARFARIN-TR Study

Background: The use of warfarin and aspirin in combination is restricted to limited patients under relevant guidelines. Aims: To evaluate the prevalence of the inappropriate combination of aspirin and warfarin therapy in...

Investigation of Gene Expressions of Myeloma Cells in the Bone Marrow of Multiple Myeloma Patients by Transcriptome Analysis

Background: Multiple myeloma is a plasma cell dyscrasia characterized by transformation of B cells into malignant cells. Although there are data regarding the molecular pathology of multiple myeloma, the molecular mechan...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP380479
  • DOI 10.4274/balkanmedj.2016.1776
  • Views 50
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

Tolga İnce, Songül Yalçın, Kadriye Yurdakök (2017). Parents’ Attitudes and Adherence to Unintentional Injury Prevention Measures in Ankara, Turkey. Balkan Medical Journal, 34(4), 335-342. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-380479