Factors Associated with Mothers' Beliefs and Practices Concerning Injury Prevention in Under Five-Year Children, Based on Health Belief Model

Background: injuries are the first leading but predictable, avoidable and preventable cause of death among under five-year children worldwide. the present study aimed to identify the factors associated with mothers' beliefs and practices concerning injury prevention in under five-year children. methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted from august to october 2011 in hamadan county, the west of iran, enrolling 580 mothers with at least one under fiveyear child. the data collection instrument was a questionnaire including 85 questions regarding demographic characteristics; knowledge; practices; health belief model (hbm) constructs; and history of injury occurrence among the children. the reliability of the questionnaire was evaluated by a pilot study using cronbach's alpha coefficient. data had been collected through interview with mothers, by trained interviewers. results: almost 22.59% of mothers reported at least one injury in their under five-year children. of 131 injuries occurred, 85 cases were mild, 23 cases were moderate, and 23 cases were severe. about 52.67% of injuries occurred in boys, 37.41% in less than oneyear children, 73.28% at home, and 61.07% when the children were playing game. fall (24.28%), burn (20.61%) and poisoning (14.50%) were the common causes of injuries. there was a positive correlation between mothers' practices and knowledge, perceived benefits, cues to action and self-efficacy and a negative correlation between mothers' practices and perceived susceptibility, severity, and barriers. conclusion: knowledge, perceived severity, perceived barriers, cues to action, and self-efficacy of mothers toward the injuries in children were among the most important predictive constructs, which may be used for planning educating programs.