Department of Burn Surgery, Changhai Hospital, The Navy Military Medical University, Shanghai, 200433, China. Electronic address: xiazhaofan_smmu@163.com.
BACKGROUND: To assess caregivers'knowledge of first aid for small-area thermal burns in children, and reduce burns-induced morbidity and damage in children.
METHODS: The multi-stage cluster random sampling method was used to recruit school-age children from different kinds of schools. For each child, we selected only one caregiver as our study participant. First-aid knowledge regarding small area burns in children and choices of medical treatment were investigated in the manner of questionnaires.
RESULTS: The effective response rate of questionnaire was 99.4% (5814/5850). Folk remedies and daily necessities were chosen by 17.8% (1,036/5814) and 48.9% (2841/5814), respectively. 39.8% (2,312/5814) of caregivers knew all standard burn first aid measures. Moreover, the proportion of knowing all five measures among caregivers with undergraduate education was significantly higher than the figures among those with other educational levels.
CONCLUSIONS: Child caregivers had poor knowledge of first aid for small area burns in children. Only a few caregivers knew all five standard first aid measures for managing small area burns. Many non-scientific and inappropriate home remedies are still widely applied among Shanghai citizens. Our study results suggest relevant scientific evidence-informed measures should be more widely disseminated to the citizens.