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Published on: February 23, 2024
Parents' perceptions of unintentional paediatric burn injuries - A qualitative study
Maria Ruth Holden1, Michael Craig Watson2, Mike J Clifford3
1School of Health Sciences/Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, NG7 2UH, UK.
Insights
Understanding burn injury prevention in low-income households is crucial. Poverty, lack of knowledge, and inadequate housing significantly hinder burn prevention strategies in Malawi, necessitating community-centered approaches.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Injury Prevention
- Global Health
Background:
- Burn injuries disproportionately impact impoverished populations globally.
- Limited research exists on socio-cultural factors influencing burn injuries in low-income settings.
- A scarcity of data hinders the development of targeted, culturally relevant burn prevention initiatives.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore parental perceptions of burn hazards and prevention strategies in households in Malawi.
- To identify socio-cultural and contextual factors contributing to childhood burn injuries.
- To inform the development of effective, community-based burn prevention programs.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative study employing semi-structured interviews with 32 parents in four Malawian villages.
- Community survey to identify participating households.
- Observational exercise in 29 households to identify home-based burn hazards.
- Thematic analysis of transcribed interviews and observations.
Main Results:
- Key themes included parental perception of home hazards, socio-cultural/developmental factors, and prevention beliefs.
- Identified contributing factors: increased hazard exposure, children's activities, morning fire use, and household roles.
- Barriers to prevention: poverty, poor housing, limited knowledge, inadequate supervision, and child behavior.
Conclusions:
- Parents acknowledge burn risks but face barriers like lack of knowledge, safety equipment, housing control, and supervision.
- Effective burn prevention strategies require consultation with local communities to ensure cultural appropriateness and efficacy.
- Future interventions must address contextual factors like poverty and housing infrastructure.
Background:
Burn injuries disproportionally affect the world's poorest populations. However, there has been a lack of research that has investigated the social, cultural or contextual factors associated with this injury mechanism in these areas. As a result, there is a scarcity of information from which to develop culturally appropriate and targeted burn prevention initiatives.
Methods:
A community survey was used to identify households to take part in this qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 parents from four different villages in Malawi to discuss their experiences of burn injuries sustained by children in the household as well as any existing preventative strategies used. In addition, 29 of the study households took part in an observation exercise to identify and discuss burn hazards present around the home environment. Transcripts and observations were recorded and transcribed verbatim. A thematic approach was used to analyse the data.
Results:
The final themes could be categorised into three key areas: parental perception of hazards around the home; socio-cultural and developmental factors associated with burn injuries; and parental perception of burns prevention. Factors associated with unintentional burn injuries, as perceived by parents, included: increased exposure to hazards, children's play and development activities, increased fire use during the morning hours and the children's household roles and responsibilities. Although some parents identified possible burns prevention strategies numerous barriers to prevention were highlighted including: poverty, poor housing infrastructure and restrictions, knowledge deficit, inability to provide adequate supervision and the child's behaviour.
Conclusions:
Parents recognise that there are a number of burn hazards and risks present around the home however factors that prevented them acting included: a lack of knowledge about injury prevention, a lack of household safety equipment, a lack of control to make alternations to their housing and an inability to adequately supervise their children. In the future it is crucial that the local context and community are consulted in the development of any future burn injury prevention strategies to ensure that they are appropriate, accepted and effective.
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