Parental Awareness of the Dangers of Foreign Body Inhalation in Children

Abstract

Background: The presence of a foreign body in the airways is a life-threatening condition and thus a medical emergency that requires timely diagnosis and treatment. If not recognized, it can lead to a number of serious complications. It is of the utmost importance to raise public awareness and educate parents and other caregivers on all aspects of this topic.Methods: This observational cross-sectional study aimed to investigate parental awareness of the dangers of foreign body aspiration. To determine the current level of knowledge of the parents, a 14question questionnaire was designed and filled out by parents of children under 5 years of age referred for their regular check-ups.Results: The results show that majority of parents know that inhaling a foreign body is a potentially life-threatening condition and recognize which objects have a potential to cause foreign body aspiration. 36.9% of respondents said they knew what the symptoms of foreign body aspiration were, however only 15.6% offered a complete answer. 59.6% of the respondents could not specify the right course of action in case FBA occurred. 2 % responded accurately. No statistically significant correlation was found between the number of children in the family nor the age and the sex of the parents and the level of knowledge about the aspiration of foreign bodies.Conclusion: This study indicates that parents are insufficiently informed on recognizing foreign body aspiration symtoms as well as providing first aid. Media-assisted campaigns and the internet are potential sources of easily accessible educational material.

The global, regional, and national burden of foreign bodies from 1990 to 2019: a systematic analysis of the global burden of disease study 2019

“…However, incidence and death aggregation occurred before 2004 and 2007, respectively, which may be due to public health personnel’s increased awareness of the disease, strengthened publicity and education, and the popularization of first-aid knowledge related to FBs in the trachea [ 5 ]. The CHOP community intervention experimental study designed in Italy aims to reform the school system to give lectures on the dangers of inhaling FBs for children, parents, guardians, and faculty, and hopes that the program will be implemented in other countries; The United States and Sweden formulate laws and regulations to prevent suffocation; Canada uses the Internet as a medium to transmit the knowledge of preventing FB suffocation; Colombia has established an open and free educational website to raise people’s awareness of the dangers of FB inhalation; to reduce the occurrence of FB events; China formulated relevant laws and regulations to reduce FB events through work [ 41 , 42 ].…”