Mothers’ Awareness about Poisoning Prevention among their Children under Five Years Old

Background: Most childhood poisoning cases occur in the home as children less than five
years old spend most of their time there. These cases are presumed to be preventable or have fewer
complications through the removal of hazards or applying the basics of first aid measures by their
mothers or caregivers. The Research design: a descriptive exploratory study was utilized. The
study aimed to assess mothers’ awareness about poisoning prevention among their children under 5
years. Setting: The study was conducted in the Maternal and Child Health Center of Toukh Dalaka
village in Tala City at the Menoufia governorate. The sampling technique was purposive
nonprobability sampling. 336 mothers were included in the study which started on January, 2021
and ended on April, 2021. The tool of data collection was an interview questionnaire sheet, which
consists of 4 parts. 1st part: Socio-demographic characteristics of the studied mothers and children.
2nd part: mothers’ knowledge about the poisoning of children under 5 years. 3rd part: mothers’
reported practices toward home environmental safety and poisoning preventive measures should be
used for their children under 5 years. 4th part: mothers’ reported practices toward poisoning first aid
for their children under 5 years. The results of this study illustrate that less than half of the studied
mothers were between 25 and 33 years, the majority of them had at least middle education, about
half of them were employees, the majority were married, more than half of them lived in extended
families, about third of them had two children and more than third of them had a fair family income
monthly. About fifth of the studied children were previously exposed to poisoning, as household,
pesticides, medication and other causes. Less than two-thirds of the studied mothers had total
complete correct answers about poisoning. More than two-thirds of the studied mothers did
satisfactory total reported practices toward home environmental safety, poisoning prevention and
poisoning first aid for their children under 5 years. The current study concluded that there is a
statistically significant relation between mothers’ age, educational level, occupation, family income
monthly and their knowledge about poisoning. A positive correlation with a highly statistically
significant relation was found between mothers’ total knowledge about poisoning with their
reported preventive and first-aid practices. A statistically significant relation between mothers’ age,
educational level, occupation, marital status, family income monthly and their reported practices
toward poisoning first aid for their children under five years. This study recommended continuous,
repetitive health education programmes and training courses for mothers who have children under-
five years and attend primary health care settings regarding poisoning prevention, environmental
safety measures and first-aid practices.