Factors related to drowning preventive behavior among caregivers with children aged one to four in rural areas of Thailand

Abstract

A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted to investigate the factors related to preventive behavior
among caregivers with children aged one to four, in rural Thailand. Two hundred eighty eight caregivers
participated in this study during data collection in March, 2012. The chi-square test, Fisher’s exact test and
multiple logistic regression were used to identify the associations between the independent variables and
the preventive behaviors of the caregivers regarding childhood drowning.
Approximately 60% of the caregivers practiced good preventive behavior regarding childhood drowning.
The preventive behavior of the caregivers regarding drowning was found to have a signif icant association
(p-value <0.05) with marital status, education, occupation, family income per month, level of knowledge,
level of perceptions, the distance from caregivers’ home to the river or the canal, the existence and quality
of a barrier around the river, and the use of posters as a source of information.
In order to reduce childhood drowning, the government and the local administrative organizations should
provide continuous childhood drowning information and education program for the caregivers at risk, such
as single parents, those with a low level of education, the unemployed students, the low income group, and
caregivers who live in a home within 10 meters of a river or canal in order to improve their knowledge
and perceptions and increase good preventive behaviors about drowning.