• Fatima Naumeri, Hafiz Mahmood Ahmad, Muhammad Sohaib Yousaf, Khadija Waheed, and Muhammad Shahid Farooq.
• Pediatric Surgery Department, King Edward Medical University, Lahore.
• J Pak Med Assoc. 2019 Aug 1; 69 (8): 1142-1145.

ObjectiveTo ascertain knowledge of first aid among parents of children suffering from burns.MethodsThe cross-sectional study was conducted at Mayo Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan, from July 2017 to January 2018, and comprised parents of patients in the paediatric burns unit. Questionnaires were filled by the duty doctor after interviewing parents, and data was collected regarding first aid, application of traditional remedies and demographic details. Optimal knowledge was defined as parent's knowledge of application of tap water on burns as first aid. SPSS 20 was used for data analysis .ResultsThere were parents of 310 patients who had a mean total body surface area of burns of 25.11}13.80%. All (100%) accidents had occurred at home. All (100%) parents had removed their children from heat and electric source immediately after the accident, while 282(91%) stripped their children of their clothes. Only 41(13.2%) parents irrigated the burn area with tap water and 93(30%) applied traditional remedies. Further, 21(6.8%) parents had covered the burnt area with sterile dressing, while 25(8.1%) had covered the child to avoid hypothermia. One (0.3 2%) parent had attended a first aid course, while 13(4.2%) had knowledge of first aid because of previous history of a child having suffered from burns. Optimal knowledge wasstatistically associated with previous knowledge of first aid (p=0.0001), level of education of the parent (p=0.003) and monthly income (p=0.01).ConclusionsThe knowledge of first aid among parents was found to be inadequate and there was an urgent need to introduce campaigns focussing on prevention and first aid to manage burns, especially among illiterate and poor classes.

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