PARENTS' KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS TOWARD UNINTENTIONAL HOME INJURIES IN CHILDREN AND SAFETY MEASURES IN MAKKAH, SAUDI ARABIA

Aim: Unintentional children injuries at home are the leading cause of deaths or disability. Safety practice is the most effective strategy to prevent home related injury or death. These injuries and accidents in children are particularly fatal because most of these injuries can be prevented with awareness and appropriate practices. This study aimed to detect the availability of safety preventive measures at home for children, and to examine whether factors such as parents' educational level and household income of the family are associated with better safety practices.Methodology: This was a quantitative descriptive cross-sectional study conducted amongst 344 parents and guardians about the availability of safety measures at home for children aged 2-18 years old in Makkah region. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Item includes demographic characteristics, parents' personal precautions, home precautions, and common home related injuries.Results: Parents' knowledge and awareness of personal home safety precautions were higher than average >60. Burns were the highest home related injury found by 11.6% of participation. Toxicity was the lowest home injury by 0.9%. Two thirds 67.4% of the respondents were not exposed to any type of injury. There was a moderate positive correlation between family household income and parents' preventive practice.Conclusion: In the current study, parents' preventive practice related to unintentional child home injuries was higher, however, they applied the procedures of personal precautions more than the home precautions.