The effect of the security measures (socket cover) distributed free of charge on increasing parental awareness of home accidents in children between 9-36 months

Accidents constitute an important problem among child deaths in developed and developing countries. Most accidents are home-accidents in children under the age of five. With simple measures to be taken, such accidents and subsequent child deaths can be prevented. Therefore, raising the awareness of parents on this issue has great importance. At this stage, physicians have a crucial role in informing parents about security measures that can be taken in their living environments. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the freely-distributed socket cover, in addition to the information, on the awareness about home accidents. The present study is a quasi-randomized controlled intervention study on home accidents including parents of healthy children aged between 9-36 months. Our study was conducted between 28.11.2019 - 25.01.2020 at Well-Child and General Pediatrics outpatient clinics of Akdeniz University Hospital. The study sample consisted of the parents of children between the ages of 9 to 36 months who applied to these clinics and do not have a chronic serious disease. In total, parents of 224 children were included in the present study. Of the subjects, 114 were given information and provided socket cover constituting the intervention group, and 110 were only given information as the control group. During the phone calls made one month later, 17 subjects from the study group and 14 from the control group could not be reached, and a total of 31 patients were excluded from the study. Before (p=0.005) and after (p<0.001) the training, the rate of cover use was found to be significantly higher in the participants who were given covers. The probability of access to detergents was significantly lower in the intervention group (9.3%) compared to controls (29.2%) in the one month period after the training (p <0.001). Additionally, the frequency of putting security locks on the cupboards increased in both groups at the end of one month period, however, the difference between the intervention and control groups was not statistically significant (p > 0.702). A statistically significant increase was observed in the frequency of using socket covers in both control and intervention groups after training (p <0.001). A statistically significant increase was found in the use of lockers in cabinets and drawers after training in subjects with and without covers (p <0.05). In multivariate analysis, being given socket covers (OR: 11,861; 95% CI: 3,912-35,956; p<0,001), maternal age younger than 30 years (OR: 3,112; 95% CI: 1,112-8,711; p=0,031) and putting security locks on the cupboards (OR: 5,702; 95% CI: 2,267-14,34; p<0,001) were found to be the factors that increased the use of socket covers. In conclusion, the training on all kinds of accident precautions and the distributing safety equipment were observed to create an awareness in parents and stimulate the use of safety measures.