Knowledge, attitudes and practices of parents in an urban coastal community on preventing childhood drowning

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE:To describe the knowledge, attitudes and practices of parents in an urban coastal community on drowning prevention.METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used in the study. Systematic random sampling was used and 431 parents were included as respondents in the study. A questionnaire that was developed and pre-tested was used to determine the knowledge, attitudes and practices on drowning prevention among parents in households with at least one child. RESULTS: The respondents' knowledge on general aspects of drowning such as its preventability and to whom and where it could happen seems to be sufficient (67-99%). Awareness of drowning prevention programs and activities in the barangay is quite low, and awareness of any legislation is even lower. The respondents seem to have positive attitudes toward supervising children while swimming or playing in high risk areas, in buying and wearing flotation devices, and participating in drowning prevention measures. Although 60 % claimed to have supervised their children while swimming in the sea, river, lake or swimming pools, more respondents (67 % - 88%) had admitted that their children had never worn flotation devices when they swim or play in most bodies of water. More than 93% of the parents have not participated in any program or activity on drowning prevention. CONCLUSIONS: The study seems to show that, in the surveyed coastal community, there is a high level of knowledge in terms of the general aspects of drowning and there are positive attitudes in terms of measures and activities to prevent drowning. However, this has not translated to similarly appropriate levels of drowning prevention practices.