PREVELANCE OF DOMESTIC INJURIES AND FIRST AID AWARENESS AMONG KUWAITS 18 OLD AND ABOVE

Injury is defined medically as being harm as a result of trauma; it is one of the most common problems that may face people in their daily life especially at home. Domestic injuries may sometimes be life-threating issue and in another situations they may also lead in the decrease of life expectancy in some cases due to the bad prognosis they represent. First aid is the urgent medical care that is provided to the victim till further medical treatment and care arrives. Simply first aid knowledge provides skills and practice to give a required life support and develop safety habits in the population?s life, therefore it is really important to have good knowledge about it and enough experience in it. This study is a cross sectional study conducted in July and August 2013, study collection of data is done at shopping malls (Alkout, Sharq, Alfanar and Almobarkyya).), and study sample is 600 Kuwaitis aged from 18 years and above. Questionnaire is used as the data instrument (appendix 1 and 2). SPSS is used for analysis of the data and interpretation of the results. This study is conducted to determine the prevalence of domestic injuries among Kuwaitis, know the most common injury in each particular age group, Asses awareness of first aid and know the best way to raise first aid knowledge. The aim of this research is to raise the awareness of first aid in the Kuwaiti population, improve the Kuwaiti population abilities to deal with the most common domestic injuries. The results of this research showed that the prevalence of domestic injuries is more than two third of the sample, Cut wounds represented the highest injury and electric shock was the lowest. There was variation on whether the response is right (12) or wrong depending on the injury. There was also variation in the opinions of the participants on how to improve first aid knowledge, preferring it to be part of the school curriculum, taking it as practical courses or making television shows about it and not forgetting about the other opinions they shared. In conclusion this study shows that the prevalence of domestic injuries in the Kuwaiti population is high. More than half of the injuries dealt with by the responders in a correct way according to first aid instructions, which reflect somehow good level of awareness within the Kuwaiti population ,furthermore in Support to this statement, the majority believes in the importance of first aid kit and also it was found that they have first aid kit in their possession. The sources of their knowledge were obtained mainly from media, first aid courses and others. However, the majority of the sample believe that the best way of dissemination first aid knowledge is by making it part of the school curriculum. Finally, it can be concluded that there is a big chance for Kuwaitis to fill the missing gap in learning the most fundamental basic aspects of first aid.