Assessment of risk factors for home injuries in children under five years and the effect of education on parents to prevent injuries and home injuries

Eda GÜL ŞAHİN, Assessment of Risk Factors for Home Injuries in Children Under Five Years and the Effect of Education on Parents to Prevent Injuries and Home Injuries SPSS, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine Department of Family Medicine, Ankara 2018. Injuries are the important cause of childhood attendance at emergency departments. In children under the age of five, most of these injuries are caused by home injuries. In fact, it is possible to reduce these injuries and accidental child mortalities with simple measures to be taken. For this reason, it is an important step for the parents to be aware of this issue. At this stage, the primary care physician who has been in contact with the parent since the prenatal period has an important role to inform the parents about the safety precautions that can be taken in their habitats. The purpose of this study is; Identification of parents about awareness of home injuries and the risk factors that facilitate the appearance of home injuries for children under five years of age who are attended to the Pediatric Emergency Department for a home injury; and assessment of the effects of the training given to mothers on home injuries for preventing injuries. In this cross-sectional study conducted at Hacettepe University İhsan Doğramacı Children's Hospital Pediatric Emergency Department, patients and mothers of five years of age who applied between 1 September 2017 and 21 August 2018 due to a domestic accident and healthy children and their mothers who agreed to participate in the study were recruited. A three-part questionnaire was used to determine the risk factors of the injuries and to evaluate the knowledge levels of parents about home injuries. The study group and the control group who applied on double days were individually trained by the researcher. 166 patients were included in the study. After six months, the mothers of all the patients included in the study were called and the cases of home injuries in this process were questioned. In the study group (n = 76), it was seen that the most common injury mechanism was fall (40 patients, 52.6%). In the study group, the risk of having home injuries was found to be statistically higher in the patients who had previously had any accidents (30.3% in the study group and 6.7% in the control group) (p = 0). The mothers were found to have the greatest awareness (7.5%) of prevention of burns. Percentage of parents making at least one vi change in home after the first interview; 59.4% (n = 41) and 35.7% (n = 20) were found in the study group applied with home accidents (p = 0.01). As a result; it has been seen that families with previous accidents have increased the risk of having a home injuriy, families are more inclined to take measures to prevent burns, and the education provided has a positive impact on home practices. Key words: Home injuries, parental education, child mortality, security, prevention.