Mothers' knowledge of child health matters: are we doing enough?

Child care is mostly the responsibility of mothers. Several studies have revealed that the mothers' education has a positive impact on their knowledge and practice in child health matters. The study was undertaken to assess the level of mothers' knowledge on certain aspects of child health care and whether there is any correlation between their level of knowledge and the number of years of formal education they have had. A two-part questionnaire was distributed. The first part comprised information about mother's nationality, age, work, level of education and number of children, in addition to sources of health information and the role of school education in child health matters. The second part contained 40 statements about different aspects of child health matters. A structured interview with the mothers who attended with their children at the pediatric outpatient clinic of King Khalid University Hospital in Riyadh during July and August 2007, was conducted by a trained non-medical research assistant using the items and statements of the questionnaire as a base. A knowledge score was calculated from the number of correct answers. The maximum score was 40. An arbitrary cut-off score of 25 was considered satisfactory. Three-hundred-seventy-three questionnaires were completed. The mean score of the total sample was 25 [out of 40] and the minimum score obtained was 14, and the maximum 36. Fifty-eight percent scored 25 or more. Scrutiny of individual items on the questionnaire revealed significant and serious gaps in mother's knowledge. No statistically significant correlation was evident between mothers' knowledge of child health related matters and level of education, age, or number of children. Mothers' knowledge of child health related matters is deficient. At present, knowledge on child health matters taught in schools in the Kingdom is inadequate. Health care institutions play a limited role in health education. There should be proper effective practical means of disseminating information on child health matters among mothers in our community

Screening for psychosocial problems in children tending the pediatric clinic at King Khalid University Hospital [KKUH] in Riyadh [KSA]

Psychosocial problems are highly prevalent among children and adolescents. One approach to facilitating recognition and referral of these problems is to use parent-completed screening questionnaire as part of routine primary care. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and type of psychosocial problems in a random sample of children attending the pediatric clinic at KKUH at the time of the study. A 2-part questionnaire was designed for the study. The first part contained basic biographic data in addition to items which reflect the socioeconomic status of the family. The second part of the questionnaire comprised the inventory, which is a modified version of the Pediatric Symptoms Checklist [PSC]. The inventory consisted of 38 items classified into five categories. The total score of the inventory ranged from 0-114. Three-hundred-twelve questionnaires were completed. The average of the total score was only 22.3 out of 114. The lowest score was 0 and the highest 84. The average scores of behavioral symptoms [BS] were the highest [7.03 out of 27] while that of the learning problems [LP] was the lowest [1.5 out of 18]. The average score for mood symptoms [MS] was 5.6 out of 24, that for personality characteristics [PC] was 4.5 out of 24 and that for somatic symptoms [SS] was 4.3 out of 24. This study revealed the feasibility of screening for behavioral problems of children in an outpatient setting. It is necessary to implement screening procedures for psycho-behavioral problems, and train pediatricians to screen children presenting at clinics

Knowledge and practices of childhood immunization among primary health care providers in Riyadh city: part II - precautions and contraindications to vaccination

To assess 1] how aware those who administer vaccines in the primary health care centres [PHCs] are of the appropriate precautions and contraindicaitons of vaccines and 2] the extent to which their practice complies with standards, and 3] the correlation between the levels of knowledge and practice on one hand with the duration of practice and attendance at a training course on vaccination on the other hand, for physicians and nurses separately. A self-adminstered questionnaire including 16 statements related to knowledge and practice of precautions and contraindications of vaccines was distributed among workers in 50 MOH PHCs in Riyadh. 506 questionnaires were returned, only 331 were completed for this part of the study giving a response rate of almost 65%. However, the statement-specific response rate varied. Except for a few, most statements were correctly responded to by a majority of the respondents reflecting adequate knowledge and appropriate practice. Experience in dealing with vaccination, and formal training in vaccination were not statistically significantly associated with the responses of both physicians and nurses. Inspite of the limitations of this study it could be fairly concluded that the overall knowledge and practices regarding precautions and contraindications of childhood immunizations among the primary care providers surveyed was good. Significant gaps still exist. This underlines the need for continuous training and supervision of health care providers who deal with the immunization of children

spectrum of child abuse presenting to a University Hospital in Riyadh.

Child abuse is prevalent worldwide, although it is often underreported. We describe the pattern of child abuse and neglect presenting to the emergency room of our hospital, the sociocultural changes-which brought this about, and suggest ways to deal with this emotionally sensitive issue. Thirteen cases of child abuse and neglect were seen in the emergency room of King Khalid University Hospital over a period of one year from July 1996 to June 1997. There were four cases of non-accidental injury, three of which had serious injury. There were three cases of sexual abuse, four cases of neglect, resulting in the death of one child and severe emaciation in another. There was one suspected case of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, and one case of child labor with neglect. Public awareness of the problem of child abuse has increased, and recent media reports reflect the significance accorded to the issue. As more information is obtained on this subject and policies and guidelines are set in place, efforts at reporting and preventing physical and psychological trauma will gather momentum