Child injuries in Lebanon: assessing mothers’ injury prevention knowledge attitude and practices

Abstract

Background Childhood injury is a neglected public health problem with a sizeable burden on children’s well-being and their families. This study aims to describe the pattern and types of childhood injuries and to determine the level of mothers’ Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) towards childhood injury prevention in Lebanon. The study further examines the association between childhood injury occurrence and mothers’ supervision. Methods This cross-sectional study recruited mothers of children aged up to 10 years from multiple sites (i.e., a medical center, a private clinic, a healthcare facility, and a refugee camp clinic). Data were collected on mothers’ KAP toward childhood injuries using self-administrated questionnaires. A summation score for KAP correct answers was calculated and descriptive and statistical analyses were performed to measure the association between the outcomes. Results A total of 264 mothers were surveyed and injury data were collected on their 464 children. The prevalence of childhood injury was 20% in the past 12 months, mostly sustained by males (53.8%) and children aged 5–10 years (38.7%). The most common type of injury was fall (48.4%), followed by burns (%7.5), and sports injuries (7.5%). Hospitalized children were more likely to be males and older than 5 years (p < 0.001). More than one-third of the mothers demonstrated poor knowledge, while the majority showed poor practice (54.4%), and fair attitude (45.6%) towards child injury prevention. Children of working mothers have three times higher odds of sustaining injuries (OR: 2.95, 95% CI: 1.60;5.47) compared to those of non-working mothers, accounting for possible confounders (p = 0.001). Conclusion Childhood injuries represent a major health problem in Lebanon. Findings from this study showed that mothers are less knowledgeable and unprepared to prevent their children from getting injured. Educational programs are much needed to address the gap in the mothers' KAP toward child injury prevention. Further studies are recommended to understand the cultural context and examine its key determinants to identify effective strategies and develop tailored interventions for preventing childhood injuries.

Domestic Accidents of Children in the Orodara District of Burkina Faso: Mothers’ Knowledge of First-Aid Practices

“…Only 5.6% of the participants of a study conducted in Saudi Arabia [6] achieved a passing score, which was 12 correct answers out of 14 questions, and 58.2% of mothers had fair knowledge about first-aid in another study, also conducted in Saudi Arabia [7]. Similar results were also found in Lebanon, where a study revealed that 57.4% of participating mothers showed fair knowledge of child injury prevention [8]. The factors associated with mothers' knowledge of first-aid practices regarding domestic accidents were the graduate level of education, having received formal first-aid training courses, and having previous experience of a child injury in the study conducted by Harere et al in Saudi Arabia [6].…”