The Safety Measures Against Home Accidents of Mothers of 0-6 Age Group Children and Related Factors

INTRODUCTION: It is important that nurses who will provide training and counseling to parents with the aim of preventing home accidents know the knowledge and practices of parents to prevent home accidents. This study was conducted to determine the level of security measures taken by mothers with children in the 0-6 age group against home accidents and related factors.
METHODS: The study was carried out in a descriptive design with 188 mothers with children aged 0-6 who were registered to the family health center in a province between May 2019 and February 2020 and applied to the center for any reason. The data were collected with “Child and Family Information Form” and “Scale for Mother’s Identification of Safety Measures Against Home Accidents for Children of 0-6 Years Age Group.” Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, Mann–Whitney U, Kruskal–Wallis, and Bonferroni Post Hoc tests.
RESULTS: The “Scale for Mother’s Identification of Safety Measures Against Home Accidents for Children of 0-6 Years Age Group” mean score of the mothers was 75.78 ± 10.73. It was determined that 25% of the children had a home accident in the last month, and the most frequent accidents were falling with a rate of 18.6%. There was a statistically significant difference between mothers’ level of education, their situations of getting education about the home accidents, and their desire to get education about the home accidents, the part of
the house where the child often plays, and the mean scores of mothers of the scale (P <.05).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: As a result, it was determined that the security measures taken by mothers for home accidents were not sufficient. The mothers’ level of education, their situations of getting education about the home accidents and their desire to getting education about the home accidents, and the part of the house where the child often plays affected the safety measures against home accidents taken by the mothers. In line with the results of the research, it is recommended to plan and implement a comprehensive education on home accidents for mothers with 0-6 age group children.