Cognition and prevention behaviors of parents on flu ─ Pingtung public kindergartens

[[abstract]]In general, a patient will get well naturally when suffering flu. However, when his high fever lasting and symptom becomes heavier, he needs to see a doctor immediately. In 2003, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) was prevalent all over the world. Later, the first case of novel influenza A virus (H1N1) was found in Mexico in March 2009; it also had a great prevalence in the world. Until July 2011, influenza B virus was spread in Taiwan, and it caused dozens of serve deaths. Although flu is not an acute fatal disease, but if it can’t be controlled well, it will create an international spread and deaths. Therefore, effective control of flu is an important issue. People during their childhood usually have weaker immunity and are more easily infected by various diseases like flu. Based on these reasons, the main purpose of this study is to explore current cognition, prevention behaviors, and related factors on flu of parents. It is a questionnaire survey by sampling; we finally obtained 398 valid samples from children’s parents. Besides, descriptive statistics, t-test, chi-square test, post hoc comparisons and one-way ANOVA are applied to analyze the results. In the aspects of cognition, personal prevention behavior and prevention-cure opinions to flu; the results show parents have high average scores in the cognition, prevention behaviors and prevention-cure opinions. But parents’ age, education, occupation mother’s nationality, and resident areas have a significant difference on cognition of flu. Furthermore, mothers’ educational background and the duration time of child in a kindergarten are also with a significant difference in prevention behaviors to flu. Then, fathers’ age, occupation and mothers’ educational background, and nationality cause differences in prevention-cure opinions. In the aspects of current prevention and treatment of flu; most parents ever watched and heard about the flu information, and most of them obtained these information from television and newspapers. However, most of them didn’t know whether their communities had held publicity activities about flu, and they even didn’t know the government has set up a flu website and a flu helpline. Finally, the related analysis about children’s flu infection shows if children’s family has ever suffered flu, children themselves have ever get pneumonia, asthma, allergies and ever been hospitalized, and children live in urban areas; the preceding conditions make children have greater chance to catch flu