Abstract:

Abstract Aim: Foreign body aspiration (FBA) is a life-threatening emergency that causes airway obstruction. This study aims to investigate the amount of awareness there is about the life-threatening emergency FBA among Turkish mothers who are full-time carers of their children, and to provide these mothers with information regardless of their answers. Material and Method: 1034 mothers with children between 6 months and 5 years old were included in the study. Participants were asked to provide their sociodemographic information and to answer questions about FBA. Results: The majority of the mothers were aged between 21–30 years old (48.94%), primary school graduates (34.62%), and housewives (66.05%). The families had two to three children in general. Most of the mothers (65.73%) had not seen a child experiencing FBA. If we compared the mothers according to level of education, “1–3 years” was mostly selected by the university graduates (66.19%) as the age group in which FBA was most prevalent. As the level of education increased, the awareness regarding FBA’s potential lethality, the importance of preventive measures, the importance of first response, and sources for correct information on how to intervene were seen to increased. While most of the participants (72.74%) stated that they would take the child to the emergency room in the event of FBA. Conclusion: The most important step in reducing the morbidity and mortality of FBA is prevention. The easiest way to prevention is education of parents and the raising of public awareness.

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