INTRODUCTION:

Children are the future of every country and all societies strive to ensure their health and safety Since India’s independence, continuous efforts have been made to improve the status of children. The large burden of communicable, infectious and nutritional disorders is gradually on the decline due to massive efforts and investments by successive Indian government, even though it is an unfinished agenda. Parallel to these changes, it is also becoming apparent that children saved from disease of yesterday are becoming victim of injury on road, at home and in public, recreational places ¹.

Children are naturally curious. As soon as they are mobile, begin to explore their surroundings and play with new objects, at the same time though, they come into contact with objects that can cause severe injuries playing with fire or touching hot objects can result in burns ².

A burn is defined as an injury to the skin or other organic tissue caused by thermal trauma, it occurs when some or all of the cells in the skin or other tissues are destroyed by hot liquids (scalds), hot solids (contact burns), or flames (flame burns). Injuries to the skin or other organic tissue due to radiation, radioactivity, electricity, friction or contact with chemicals are also considered as burns ³.

Risk factors of burns includes, according to data collected from the national burn information exchange reveal that 75% of all burn injuries result from the actions of the victim, with many of these injuries occurring in the home environment. Contact with scalding liquids is the leading cause of burn injury. Toddlers suffer more scald injuries than any other age group. Scald injuries are frequently the results in the performance of everyday tasks such as bathing, cooking, overturned coffeepots, overheated foods, liquids cooked in micro wave ovens and hot tap water have been identified as specific causes. Approximately 10% of residential fire deaths are caused by children playing with matches or other ignition sources. Additionally faulty chimney’s, flue vents, fixed heating units, fireplaces, central heating systems. Wood burning stoves, as well as human error, all have been implicated⁴.Burns in children under the age of five year old at higher risk of hospitalization often occur from a mixture of curiosity and awkwardness. In children under the age of four years, the level of motor development does not match the child’s cognitive and intellectual development and injuries can thus occur more easily⁵.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

1. To assess the knowledge of parents regarding prevention and first aid for burns.

2. To correlate knowledge level with demographic profile

ASSUMPTIONS:

1. It is assumed that parents may have less knowledge regarding prevention and first aid for burns.

METHODOLOGY:

Research approach: Exploratory Evaluative Approach. .

Research design: Descriptive research design.

Research Setting: Selected rural areas of Wardha district. Rural areas included in the study were Nagapur village, Wardha and Chitora village, Wardha..

Sample: parents of under-five children.

Sample size: 60

Variables:

Research variable:

Knowledge regarding prevention and first aid for burn.

CRITERIA FOR SAMPLE SELECTION:

Inclusion criteria:

Those who are

· Parents residing in rural area.

· Parents know language of Hindi and Marathi.

· Parents who are willing to participate in the study.

Exclusion criteria:

· Parents who are not available at the time of data collection.

· Parents who are health care worker.

MATERIAL AND METHODS:

The data collection tool consists of two parts.

It consists of two sections

Section I consists of demographic variables of the parents to be participated in the study (age, sex, education, occupation, religion and number of children).

Section II consists of 20 questions on knowledge regarding prevention and first-aid for burn.

RELIABILITY:

Reliability analysis was done for questionnaire by split half coefficient, and was 0.89.

METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION:

The data was collected by using structured questionnaire.

MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE STUDY:

The Distribution of subjects according to their age, 6.66% were of age group of 20-25years and 23.33% from 26 - 30 years, 31.66% from age group of 31 – 35 years, 38.33% subject from 35 - 40 years respectively. The Distribution of subjects according to their sex shows that the majorities 56.66% of the subjects were females and 43.33% samples were males. The Distribution of subjects according to their education shows that 26.66% of subjects had primary education, 50%had secondary, 15% had higher secondary, 3.33% are graduate, 1.66% are post graduate and 3.33% had any other education.

The Distribution of subjects according to their occupation shows that 41.66% of subjects are housewives, 36.66% are doing agriculture, 13.33% private employees and 8.33% are government employees. The Distribution of subjects according to their religion shows that 91.66% of subjects belong to Hindu religion, 1.66% belongs to Christian and 6.66% belongs to any other. None of the subjects belongs to Muslim and Sikh religion. The Distribution of subjects according to their number of children shows that the 13.33% of subjects are having1 child, 53.33% had 2 children, 21.66% had 3 children and 11.66% had 4 children.

The study shows that 8(13.33%) had poor level of knowledge, 36(60%) had average level of knowledge, 16(26.66%) had good level of knowledge and 0% of parents had excellent level of knowledge. The minimum score was 3 and the maximum score was 15. , the mean score was 8.95.

Out of the five demographic variables age, sex, education, occupation, religion and number of children, only number of children was found to be significantly associated with the knowledge score.

Figure: Distribution of parents according to Level of Knowledge score

DISCUSSION:

In present study, Majority of the parents, 38.33% subject belonging to the age of 30-34 years, majorities 56.66% of the subjects were females, 50% had taken secondary education, majority of 41.66% were housewives, majority 91.66% of them belongs to Hindu religion and majority 53.33% had 2 children. The study shows that 8(13.33%) had poor level of knowledge, 36(60%) had average level of knowledge, 16(26.66%) had good level of knowledge and 0% of parents had excellent level of knowledge. The minimum score was 3 and the maximum score was 15. , the mean score was 8.95.

A detailed review of literature indicated that most of the studies indicating that education and lack of awareness had significant effect on knowledge regarding prevention and first aid for burn. This study was the modest effort to assess the knowledge of parents prevention and first aid for burn.

A study was conducted on Perceptions of rural people about childhood burns and their prevention, Focus group participants were aware of the devastating consequences of childhood burn injuries. They reported that younger boys and older girls are at higher risk of burn injuries. They identified home as the most common place for childhood burn injuries, and stated that occurrence was more common in winter. They held the household members or caregivers responsible because of their lack of supervision and carelessness. The focus group participants suggested that people should supervise their children more carefully, and should take initiatives to modify their homes and premises as necessary so that children would not have access to fires and heat sources. Regarding first aid, the focus group participants reported prevailing harmful practices which are likely to make injuries worse.⁶

In the present study, parents of under five children are the study subjects and the finding shows that parents were having insufficient knowledge regarding the prevention and first aid for burn. Education is needed for parents to increase their knowledge. The findings of the present study shows that 8(13.33%) had poor level of knowledge, 36(60%) had average level of knowledge, 16(26.66%) had good level of knowledge and 0% of parents had excellent level of knowledge.

A descriptive study was conducted to determine first aid knowledge and practices of ill or injured children in parents. Convenience samples of 654 adult parents were selected. The data was collected by the administration of multiple choice questionnaires. The researcher found that, mean age (SD) was 38.5 (13.8), 56% were female, 56% had at least a high school education. None of these surveyed answered all questions correctly with roughly half being familiar with 60% of the questions. Knowledge of specific guidelines ranged from 21% to 92%, subjects especially lacked knowledge regarding the need to cover victims of large burns, only 43% aware. This study reveals that, many adults are unfamiliar with the first aid measure. Further education is required to improve knowledge of first aid practice.⁷

CONCLUSION:

After the detailed analysis, this study leads to the following conclusion: 8(13.33%) had poor level of knowledge, 36(60%) had average level of knowledge, 16(26.66%) had good level of knowledge and 0% of parents had excellent level of knowledge. There was significant association between number of children and knowledge score. There was no significant association between age, sex, education, occupation and religion. As findings of the study shows that parents had average knowledge regarding prevention and first aid for burn. Therefore it is very essential to give more emphasis on increasing the knowledge of parent’s regarding prevention and first aid for burn. And nurses have to play important role to motivate the parents to improve their knowledge regarding prevention and first aid for burn.

REFERENCES:

1. NIMHANS BISB fact sheet child injury, Available from URL. http://www.censusidia.gov.in /census_data_2001/India_at_glanie/broad_aspx.

2. Margie Peden, Kayede, Ogegbite, Joan Ozanne-Smith, Adnan A Hyder.. (et al), World report on child injury prevention, world health organization 2008, P_P79-93. Available from URL: http://www hqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2008.

3. Facts about injuries: burns Genova, World Health Organization and international society for burn injuries, 2006. Available from URL: http://www.who.int/entity/violenceinjury prevention/publications/otherinjury/en/burns_factsheet.pdf.accessed17April2008

4. Black. M. Joyce, Hawks Hokanson Jane, Keene. M Annabelle, Medical Surgical Nursing, Vol-2, 6^th Edition. P_P 1331-1338.

5. Chung ECH. Burn injuries in China: a one year survey at the united Christian Hospital, Hong Kong practice, 1996, 18:631-636.

6. EConklin, and FRivara, www.publichealth journal.com/Article/ 50033-3506 (09) 0017-5/10/aug/ 2009.

7. Singer AJ, Gulla J, Thode HC Jr, Cronin KA, Department of emergency medicine, stong brook, USA. pediatric first aid knowledge among parents. Pediatric emergency care. 2004 Dec; 20(12): 808-11.

Received on 19.12.2016 Modified on 01.01.2017

Int. J. Nur. Edu. and Research. 2017; 5(3): 269-271.

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2660.2017.00055.2