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Long-term outcomes of the shaken baby syndrome prevention program: Turkey's experience
Medine Ayşin Taşar1, Figen Şahin2, Selda Polat3
1Clinics of Pediatrics, Ankara Education and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
Insights
Shaken baby syndrome (SBS) prevention education is effective long-term. The study shows that knowledge gained during pregnancy or early postpartum remains beneficial until babies are 2-4 months old, a critical period for infant crying.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Public Health
- Child Development
Background:
- Shaken baby syndrome (SBS) poses significant health risks to infants.
- Parental education, particularly in the early postnatal period, is crucial for SBS prevention.
- The effectiveness of SBS prevention education needs to be sustained until the period of increased infant crying (2-4 months).
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the long-term effectiveness of an SBS prevention program.
- To determine if the educational benefits persist until the 2-4 month period of intensified infant crying.
Main Methods:
- An interventional study comparing two groups of mothers.
- Group A received SBS prevention education during pregnancy or early postpartum.
- Group B (control) did not receive education; data collected via questionnaires at 2-4 months postpartum.
Main Results:
- Mothers who received SBS education (Group A) were significantly more likely to agree that babies occasionally cry.
- Group A mothers also demonstrated a significantly higher agreement that battering is harmful to babies compared to Group B.
- These findings indicate the persistence of educational impact.
Conclusions:
- SBS prevention program education is permanent and effective until the 2-4 month period.
- Early parental education is a viable strategy for mitigating the risks associated with shaken baby syndrome.
Aim:
Shaken baby syndrome (SBS) is a condition which may cause to serious health problems in the baby. SBS may be prevented by increasing awareness with giving education to parents especially in the early postnatal period. In shaken baby prevention programs, education is recommended to be given before the 2-4(th) month during which the frequency of crying is increased. It is important that education given in the early period is permanent until the period during which the frequency of crying is increased. The aim of this study was to evaluate the persistency of the benefit of the SBS prevention program until the 2-4(th) month during which crying is intensified.
Material And Methods:
This study is an interventional study. When the babies became 2-4 months old, a questionnaire which questioned the usefulness of education and the experiences with babies was applied to a group selected randomly among the mothers who received SBS prevention education during pregnancy or in the first 7 postnatal days (group A). The same questionnaire was applied to 143 mothers whose babies completed their first 2 months, who presented to the hospital for vaccination and who did not receive education about SBS as the control group (group B). The data were evaluated using the Statistical Program for Social Sciences (SPSS) 15.0 statistical analysis package program. Ethical approval was obtained from the local ethics committee (30.12.2009, 2785).
Results:
The rate of the mothers who stated "yes" to the sentence "babies occasionally cry" which was one of the main messages of the education was statistically significantly higher in group A compared to group B (p=0.001). The rate of the mothers who stated "I agree" to the sentence "battering is harmful for babies" was statistically significantly higher in group A compared to group B (p=0.001).
Conclusions:
Conclusively, it was found that SBS prevention program education was permanent until the 2-4(th) month.
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