A Study of Burn Accidents in Children towards Developing a Program for Prevention

어린이 화상사고의 실태와 예방대책 프로그램 개발에 대한 연구

This study is a descriptive study which was done to examine the circumstances surrounding burn accidents in children in order to develop a burn prevention program. The subjects for the study were the mothers of 107 children admitted to two burn specialty hospitals in seoul and the mothers of 172 healthy children attending day care or kindergarten. The tool used in the study was developed by the researchers, pretested and refined. Cronbach's alpha was 0.72. Data collection was done between November 1995 and April 1996. Statistically analysis was done using SAS Version 6.04 and the data was analyzed using test, chi square, regression and logistic analysis. A suumary of the results shows the following : Eighty percent of the children in both groups lived in nuclear families but comparatively more of the children with burn accidents lived in apartments. More of the parents in the group of healthy children had university education and held white collar or professional jobs, while the parents of the children with burn accidents were slightly younger than the parents of the healthy children. but not significantly younger. A significantly greater number of families of children with burn accidents had more than one child and the characteristics of the children with burn accidents that they were more frequently boys, either first or last born and very active. Most of the burn accidents occurred in fall or winter. sometime between noon and midnight and the majority occurred in the home and were caused by hot liquid. In 86% of the cases emergency care was not given at home but the child was brought to the hospital emergency unit. Most of the burns were second degree or greater. involved the arms or legs. required admission, and 41.5% occurred when the parents were preparing or eating meals. In a test of knowledge of preventive measures, the mothers of children who had suffered burn accidents scored slightly higher than the mothers who had no experience with burn accidents, but this was not statistically significant. As to what to do in the case of a fire, the mothers of the healthy children had more knowledge about who to notify. but 70% of the mothers in both groups did not know how to escape from the house if it was of fire. 80 to 96% did not know what do to in case of a fire, such as rolling if clothes were on fire. 80% did not know what emergency care to give for a burn, and 74 to 87% did not know when it is appropriate to try to put out a fire. It can be concluded from this study that. since the results show that the most frequent situation which resulted in burn accidents was when the parents were not aware of the danger of burns or were not paying attention to the child. and when there were no protective devices to prevent burns. and that accidents most frequently occurred at home. the most effective way of preventing accidents is to develop in the parents a "safety mind", Since burn accidents in children are usually more severe than in adults. the physical. emotional. psychological and social damage is greater. In order to develop and awareness of this in the general public. the use of mass media. books and pamphlets and other educational media that provide education on prevention of burn accidents need to be utilized.