Basic choking education to improve parental knowledge

Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practice toward first aid management of choking hazards among Eastern Province Saudi adults: an observational study

Background and aim

Childhood choking is a global health concern that mainly affects children under the age of 5 years. The parent's and caretaker's responsibility is critical in the children's lives and can potentially influence the result of at-home injuries such as choking. We aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, practice, and associated factors of first aid management toward choking hazards among Saudi adults from the Eastern Province.

Methods

The present analytical study was carried out among 390 Saudi adults attending different primary health centers in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. We used a standard and validated data research topic tool to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice. Spearman's correlation was applied to determine the correlation between each section, while binomial logistic regression analysis was applied to identify the associated factors.

Results

We observed knowledge, attitude, and practice scores in 43.3, 38.9, and 36.4% of the participants, respectively. Furthermore, positive correlations between knowledge and attitude (rho = 0.42, p = 0.001), between knowledge and practice (rho = 0.57, p = 0.001), and between attitude and practice (rho = 0.41, p = 0.001) were revealed in our survey. The knowledge of the participants was significantly higher with the age group of 30-40 years [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) = 3.67 (1.94-4.65), p = 0.001] and participants who received training in first aid management [AOR = 1.64 (1.12-2.49), p = 0.037]. This study found that males [AOR = 0.36 (0.21-0.63), p = 0.001] and those working in the private sector [AOR = 0.61 (0.31-0.87), p = 0.018] had significantly lower attitudes.

Conclusion

Our results underscore the importance of continuous health education initiatives and training courses at primary health care centers regarding first aid management of choking hazards to improve awareness and practices. Furthermore, we recommend prospective multicenter studies to address region-specific knowledge gaps.

Contributions of telesimulation to the knowledge of mothers about foreign body airway obstruction

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the contributions of telesimulation to the knowledge of mothers faced with foreign body airway obstruction in children under 1 year of age and identify the related factors.

METHODS

A quasi-experimental study of the pre- and post-test design carried out between April and September 2021 with 49 mothers from a city in São Paulo. It was organized into four stages: pre-test, telesimulation, immediate and late post-test (60 days later). All steps were carried out remotely via the free online platform Google Hangouts® and Google Forms®. Data analyzed by descriptive and analytical statistics.

RESULTS

There was a significant difference in the knowledge score between the assessments (p<0.001). Statistically significant relationships were identified between pre-test knowledge and choking experience (p=0.012), promotion of immediate knowledge and another child's choking (p=0.040) and schooling (p=0.006) and promotion of late knowledge with occupation (p=0.012) and choking of another child (p=0.011).

CONCLUSIONS

There was a significant improvement in knowledge after telesimulation, especially among those who had never experienced a choking situation and had a higher level of education.

The effect of education using a mobile application on knowledge and decision of Iranian mothers about prevention of foreign body aspiration and to relieve choking in children: A quasi-experimental study

PURPOSE

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of mobile-based education on mothers' knowledge and decisions about prevention of foreign body (FBA) aspiration and to relieve choking in preschool children.

METHODS

This is a quasi-experimental study in which 88 mothers whose children were registered in each selected kindergarten of the city of Rasht (in Iran) were selected by multi-stage cluster sampling. All mothers were educated through lectures. Then, in the control group, an educational booklet and CDs were used, and in the intervention group, a mobile application was used. Mothers' knowledge and decision were measured by a researcher-made questionnaire before and after the lecture and four weeks after providing the interventions. Mann-Whitney, Wilcoxon, and Friedman tests were used to analyze the data. The level of significance was p < 0.05.

RESULTS

The results showed that the mean scores of knowledge (n = 44, M = 13.47, SD = 1.84) and decision (n = 44, M = 8.52, SD = 1.30) of participants immediately and mean scores of knowledge (n = 44, M = 14.68, SD = 1.98) and decision of participants (n = 44, M = 9.56, SD = 2.15) four weeks after the educational interventions, in the intervention group, were statistically significantly higher than the control group. Intragroup comparison of the mean scores of knowledge and decision immediately and four weeks after educational interventions, showed that only in the intervention group did the mean scores have statistically significant increase, (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Mobile-based education was more effective in improving mothers' knowledge and decision about prevention of foreign body aspiration and to relieve choking in children than other educational methods.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Mobile applications may be a new and effective method for providing education to parents.

Learning First Aid with a Video Game

Any citizen can be involved in a situation that requires basic first aid knowledge. For this reason, it is important to be trained in this kind of activity. Serious games have been presented as a good option to integrate entertainment into the coaching process. This work presents a video game for mobile platforms which facilitate the formation and training in the PWA (Protect, Warn, Aid) first aid protocol. Users have to overcome a series of challenges to bring theoretical concepts closer to practice. To easily change the point of view of the game play, Augmented Reality technology has been used. In order to make each game looks different, neural networks have been implemented to perform the behavior of the Non-Playable Characters autonomous. Finally, in order to evaluate the quality and playability of the application, as well as the motivation and learning of content, several experiments were carried out with a sample of 50 people aged between 18 and 26. The obtained results confirm the playability and attractiveness of the video game, the increase of interest in learning first aid, as well as the greater fixation of the different concepts dealt with in the video game. The results support that this application facilitates and improves the learning of first aid protocols, making it more enjoyable, attractive, and practical.

A Serious Game on the First-Aid Procedure in Choking Scenarios: Design and Evaluation Study

Background

Choking is one of the causes of unintentional injury death. Gaining the knowledge of the first-aid procedure that has to be applied in case of choking can increase the chances of survival of persons with choking. Serious games can be a good channel for educating people about choking scenarios and the actions to be taken to save the persons with choking.

Objective

The objective of this study is to present and evaluate the effectiveness of a serious game designed to prevent choking and to promote the first-aid procedure that needs to be applied in case of choking.

Methods

In this study, we present a serious game as a set of minigames that reproduces the main steps of the protocol for the first-aid performed in choking. In the proposed game, the player acquires the role of a helper who has to save the person in a choking emergency by applying the main steps of the protocol. Time and score restrictions are imposed to pass each minigame. To test this game, we performed a pilot study with 48 high school students. Different tests were performed to assess the students’ preferences and their knowledge on choking before and after playing the proposed game. The obtained results were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U test when a grade variable was involved and by using Fisher exact test when 2 categorical variables were involved.

Results

The findings of our study showed that the players enjoyed the game. No statistical differences were detected when considering the gender of the player, their preferences for video games, or their previous experience in choking emergencies. By comparing the knowledge of these students before and after playing the game, we found that all the indicators of the knowledge about how to act in case of a choking emergency were improved through this serious game.

Conclusions

The findings of our study show that the proposed game is a good strategy for promoting and teaching first-aid procedures in choking emergencies to nonexperts in this field.