Saudi parents awareness regarding burn, choking, and drowning first aid in children

BACKGROUND: Children are the most affected age group by home and traffic accidents. Parents, as the primary caregiver to their children, play an important role in saving their lives during an accident, therefore, more attention should be focused to assess and improve the parents' knowledge and skills of first aid (FA). AIM: Determining the parent's awareness level regarding choking, drowning, and burn FA, their readiness to attend an FA course and solutions from their perspective to improve the awareness level regarding FA for children. METHODOLOGY: Cross-sectional analysis was conducted by using a simple random sampling that includes 300 parents attending a well-baby clinic in Wazarat primary health care center in Riyadh through self-administered questionnaires. Multiple variables were evaluated to assess their effect on the outcome. RESULTS: Only 6% of the parents have a high and acceptable awareness level regarding choking, drowning, and burn FA. A lot of myths and incorrect practices are prevalent among parents regarding these injuries' management. Fortunately, two-thirds of the participants (78%) are willing to attend an FA course and 79% of them think that adding FA to school subjects is the solution for awareness improvement. CONCLUSIONS: Parents' knowledge level regarding FA methods of major home injuries are insufficient, therefore, more attention should be focused to improve the parents' knowledge and skills of FA in order to reduce morbidity, mortality from these injuries.