KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF PEDIATRIC DROWNING FIRST AID AMONG PARENTS IN HAIL POPULATION, SAUDI ARABIA

Background: Around the world, drowning is one of the top three causes of death from unintentional injury, and children at the highest risk. Aim: Our study aims to assess the parents knowledge, attitude and practice towards pediatric drowning risks, causes and first aid. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study was conducted on males and females parents at any age in Hail, Saudi Arabia, Through a self-administrated online questionnaire which divided into two sections: demographic information (age, gender, marital state and education level) and information about pediatric drowning (risk factors, causes, the riskiest place that could cause drowning, previous drowning accidents, swimming supervision, Pediatric drowning First Aid steps) Result: Our study included 406 male and female parents. The majority were females (81.7%). The level of knowledge about drowning first aid among the participants was moderate (with a mean of 8.14±2.57). (76.1%) of participants chose lack of supervision as a risk factor of drowning. The majority of the participants (77.8%) chose children not knowing how to swim as the cause of drowning. (87.7%) of the participants agreed that the public swimming pool is the riskiest place that could cause drowning. Most of the participants (74.9%) havent had any previous drownings.