Interventions by Mothers of 1-6 Year Old Children after Home Accidents

Abstract

PURPOSE: The purpose of the research was to determine the interventions after home accidents by women with a child between 1-6 years old.

INSTRUMENT AND METHODS: The research was conducted as a descriptive study in the neighborhoods served by Çukurova Health Clinic affiliated with Mersin province center municipality. Using a simple random sampling method 100 women were taken into the sample by numbering the 1-6 year old child monitoring records. Data were collected on a questionnaire. Percentage distribution and Chi square test were used in the analysis of data obtained in the research.

FINDINGS: The children of 66.0% of the women had had at least one home accident and the most frequent of the accidents was falling (66.7%) followed by burns (43.9%). The majority of women, following their child's fall (61.4%) applied a wound ointment and took the child to a health care facility and following a burn to their child 44.8% of the women used a cold application and took the child to a health care facility. The overwhelming majority of the women learned about first aid for childhood accidents from the people close to them, such as a relative or neighbor. There was no statistically significant difference between the women's sociodemographic characteristics and frequency of home accidents and the kind of first aid used for home accidents (P>0.05).

RESULTS: The frequency of accidents in the homes of children between 1-6 years was high, and the majority of the first aid treatments administered by women following an accident was correct. Although the percentage was small some of the women did use inappropriate procedures.Keywords: Accident, injury, home accidents, childhood accidents