Evaluation of knowledge, attitude and practices on fever of mothers of children with chronic disease

Fever is one of the most common issues in childhood and is a defense mechanism of metabolism that most of time it does not require treatments. The families - especially mothers - that think make low fever immediately can make wrong practices to child in a rush, although fever is not too high. In order to reveal of the level of knowledge and approaches on fever of mothers; in the present study, the knowledge, attitudes and practices of mothers of children with chronic disease lying in the hospital were investigated. The universe of the research was the mothers of children with chronic illnesses lying in the children's services of KTÜ Farabi Hospital. For the sample; when the application frequency of 50% and deviation of 0.05 were taken, sample size was determined as 384 mothers. Our study was completed with 400 mothers. The research data were collected by face to face interviews with mothers and mother's approval was obtained before the questionnaire form is implemented. It was found that 54.9% of mothers graduated from primary school and under, 30.0% of mothers knew normal body temperature. According to the educational status; 49.6% of the mothers with primary and lower education touch the forehead of their children for fever measurement, while 73.5% of the mothers with university degree stated that they measured fever with a thermometer. 81.8% of mothers had a thermometer at home and mothers said that they measured fever of 57.1% underarm, 0.7% rectal, 8.0% tympanic, 3.7% oral and 30.5% of the forehead region. 33.7% of the mothers said that first took off clothes of the child and 18.3% said they had given antipyretics in high fever. It was determined that 88.6% of the mothers took their children to a doctor in non-falling fever. 84.2% of the mothers stated that they took antipyretics on prescription of the doctor and 48.5% used paracetamol as an antipyretic. According to the educational status, 65.3% of the mothers with university degree preferred to apply to the hospital in non-falling fever. 62.8% of the mothers who participated to the study stated that they learned from the medical personnel what they know about fever. 64.1% of the mothers stated that they were afraid of the fever could cause a seizure in their children. This situation negatively affected the approach of mothers to the febrile child and caused unnecessary hospital applications.