Effect of educational intervention on the knowledge and practice among parents of newborns with jaundice

Background: Raising awareness of mothers has an important role to preventing neonatal severe hyperbilirubinemia. We aimed to investigate the role of educational intervention on the knowledge and practice of the mothers with icteric newborns. Materials and Methods: This study was interventional study with interventional and control group. Study population consisted of 384 consecutive parents of newborns with jaundice, who were admitted to Mahdieh and Mofid hospitals in Tehran- Iran, during 2013 to 2014. The participants were randomly assigned to the trained group (n = 192), who receiving educational programs in three sessions that each sessions was about 45 minutes and the control group (n = 192), without any educational intervention Two months after completing the educational program, the level of knowledge and practice of women in both groups was assessed by using the same questionnaire. The data were analyzed by using SPSS software. Results: The mean score for the level of knowledge toward neonatal jaundice was higher in educational group compared to the control group (7.5 ± 2.5, ranged 2 to 15 versus 4.7 ± 1.3 ranged 1 to 7, P < 0.001). The level of knowledge toward neonatal jaundice reached 72 in educational group that remained 39 in control mothers. The mean score for practice of mothers to neonatal jaundice was significantly higher in trained mothers than in untrained ones (13.7 ± 3.8 ranged 7 to 19 versus 5.9 ± 2.1 ranged 3 to 7, P < 0.001). Also, high score for practice in trained and untrained women was 84 and 67, respectively that was significantly higher in former group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Despite low level of knowledge and practice of mothers with jaundiced neonates, training programs in our experience led to significantly improving the level of knowledge and practice in this population