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Infant and child safety practices of parents
M M Jan1, F H Hasanain, A A Al-Dabbagh
1The Department of Pediatrics (Neurology), King Abdulaziz University Hospital, PO Box 6615, Jeddah 21452, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Insights
Child safety practices in Jeddah require improvement, with low rates of smoke detectors, car seat use, and bicycle helmets. Unfavorable safety behaviors are linked to parental education and family size, highlighting areas for intervention.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Safety
- Public Health Interventions
- Child Injury Prevention
Background:
- Accidental injuries are a leading cause of death in children.
- Many childhood injuries are preventable with adequate parental safety measures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess parental safety practices for infants and children.
- To identify factors associated with unsafe child safety behaviors.
Main Methods:
- Prospective interviews with 289 parents during routine well-baby clinic visits.
- A structured 38-item questionnaire was used to collect data.
Main Results:
- Low reported use of smoke detectors (4%), infant car seats (8%), and bicycle helmets (10%).
- High rates of unsafe sleep practices (75% co-sleeping) and unsupervised street play (24%).
- Unsafe practices were correlated with lower parental education and larger family size.
Conclusions:
- Significant improvements are needed in infant and child safety practices in Jeddah.
- Health promotion interventions targeting education, environmental changes, and legislation are recommended.
Objective:
Accidental injuries are the leading cause of death among children. Many of these injuries could be prevented if the parents took additional safety precautions. We aimed to study the parent's safety practices and explore the possible correlating and contributing factors to unfavorable safety behaviors.
Method:
Prospective interviews with the parents of infants seen consecutively during a routine well baby clinic visit were conducted using a structured 38-item questionnaire.
Results:
Two hundred and eighty nine structured interviews were conducted and the mother was interviewed in 88% of cases. Only 4% of families had a smoke detector at home and 8% reported using an infant car seat. Most families owned an infant crib, however, 75% of the mothers reported sleeping next to the infant in the mother's bed. Most families (74%) had other older children. Up to 74% of the families reported keeping detergents and medications in a high or locked cabinet. Only 10% of the parents reported that their children use bicycle helmets and 24% use car seat belts. Use of car seat belts was more common in higher income families or if the father's age was >30 years (p=0.01). Twenty four percent of the parents reported allowing their children to play unsupervised in the street. These mothers were more likely to be non-educated (29% versus 5%, p=0.009) and 3 times more likely to have 4 or more children (95%, confidence interval 1.5-6, p=0.001).
Conclusion:
The infant and child safety practices of many families living in Jeddah needs further improvements. Our data identifies certain areas that can be targeted by health promotion interventions including education, environmental modification, and legislation.