Abstract

INTRODUCTION

This study was conducted in order to determine the attitudes of mothers towards protecting their children from home accidents and the affecting factors.

METHODS

The study was carried out as a cross-sectional and descriptive study in between March 01,2014andJune 15,2015 in a region of Family Health Center(FHC)in a city center located in east Turkey.The population of thestudy consisted of mothers having at least one child aged between 1and 3 who were registered at this FHC.Sample of the study material was 400mothers selected by non-random accidental sampling method from the population mentioned above.The data were collected through“Information Form”and“0-6Year Old Children’s Mothers’ Knowledge of Safety Precautions for the Prevention ofHome Accidents Scale”.Percentage distributions,mean,standard deviation,independent samples t-test,variance,KruskaWallis andCronbach's alpha coefficient calculation were used to assess the data.

RESULTS

It was found in the study that children of57.3% of the mothers experienced a home accident and among these children,55.0% fell,15.2% hit somewhere,and12.5% had burns.It was determined that mean score of“0-6 Year Old Children’s Mothers' Knowledge of Safety Precautions for thePrevention ofHome Accidents Scale” was179.74±12.91.It was also found that while the mother’s education and employment status,education status of the father and the number of children affected attitudes of mothers towards protecting their children from home accidents(p<0.05).

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

It was determined that the attitudes of the mothers of children who did not have a home accident were better than the attitudes of those whose children experienced any home accident.The variables of the mother’s education and employment status,education status of the father and the number ofchildren affected these attitudes ofmothers.