A CROSS-SECTIONAL SURVEY ON KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE IN PARENTS WITH DOWN SYNDROME CHILDREN

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Parents with Down syndrome children may be unfamiliar with coping strategies because of limited knowledge, negative attitude and inappropriate practice. To the best of author's knowledge, no study has been conducted in Pakistan till date to explore the issue. METHODOLOGY A cross-sectional survey was conducted among parents of children with Down syndrome, enrolled in the study via convenience sampling technique. Data was collected on self-administered questionnaire based on parental knowledge, attitude and practice on Down syndrome distributed via email or WhatsApp group. RESULTS A total number of 24 parents with Down syndrome included in this study involving majority of mothers (52.2%) showed that (79.2%) parents understand that Down syndrome is a genetic disorder, (91.7%) agreed that children are born through it. Moreover, (83.3%) think that the syndrome can be detected during pregnancy through prenatal tests whereas (100%) showed that physiotherapy, occupational and speech therapy plays a pivotal role in the management of disorder. Besides, (83.3%) parents have recommended the special health services. Therefore, (87.5%) parents will prefer to seek the genetic counselling when planning for next child. CONCLUSION It was concluded that majority of parents have demonstrated the sound knowledge, positive attitude and proactive practice among parents with Down syndrome children. Thus, multicenter large scale studies should be conducted to investigate the factors associated to parent-child relationship and promote education for better health outcomes.