Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Burns. 2023 Sep;49(6):1305-1310. doi: 10.1016/j.burns.2023.01.007. Epub 2023 Jan 27.
Children are uniquely vulnerable to injury because of near-complete dependence on caregivers. Unintentional injury is leading cause of death in children under the age of 14. Burns are one of the leading causes of accidental and preventable household injuries, with scald burns most common in younger children and flame burns in older ones. Education is a key tool to address burn prevention, but unfortunately these injuries persist. Critically, there is a paucity of literature investigating adult comprehension with respect to potential risks of household burns. To date, no study has been performed to assess management readiness for these types of injuries without seeking medical care.
Qualtrics™ surveys were distributed to laypersons via Amazon Mechanical Turk. Demographics were self-reported. The survey was divided into two parts, management knowledge, and risk identification. The management part involved a photograph of a first-degree pediatric burn injury and required identification of the degree of injury and three potential initial managements. The risk-identification section required correctly identifying the most common mechanisms of burn injury for different age groups followed by general identification of 20 household burn risks. Survey responses were analyzed using two-tailed Student's t-tests and chi-square analyses, univariate and multivariate analysis, and linear regression.
Of the 467 respondents, the mean age was 36.57 years, and was 59.7% (279) male. Only 3.2% of respondents were able to correctly identify all 20 potential risks listed in our survey. Additionally, only 4.5% of respondents correctly identified all three appropriate initial management options (cool water, sterile gauze, and over-the-counter analgesics) without misidentifying incorrect options. However, 56.1% of respondents were able to select at least one correct management option. For image-based injury classification, the most common response was incorrectly second-degree with 216 responses (42.2%) and the second-most common response was correctly first-degree with 146 responses (31.3%). Most respondents claimed they would not seek medical attention for the injury presented in the photograph (77.7%). When comparing the responses of individuals with children to those without, there were no statistically significant differences in ability to assess household risks for pediatric burns. For the entire population of respondents, the mean score for correctly identifying risks was 38%.
This study revealed a significant gap in public awareness of household risks for pediatric burns. Furthermore, while most individuals would not seek medical care for a first-degree pediatric burn injury, they were readily available to identify proper initial management methods. This gap in knowledge and understanding of household pediatric burn injuries should be addressed with increased burn injury prevention education initiatives and more parental counseling opportunities.
由于完全依赖照顾者，儿童极易受到伤害。意外伤害是 14 岁以下儿童死亡的主要原因。烧伤是家庭意外伤害和可预防伤害的主要原因之一，幼儿最常见的是烫伤烧伤，年龄较大的儿童则是火焰烧伤。教育是解决烧伤预防问题的重要工具，但不幸的是，这些伤害仍然存在。至关重要的是，很少有文献研究成年人对家庭烧伤潜在风险的理解。迄今为止，还没有研究评估在不寻求医疗护理的情况下，这些类型的伤害的管理准备情况。
通过亚马逊土耳其机器人向非专业人士分发了 Qualtrics™ 调查。人口统计学数据是自我报告的。调查分为两部分，管理知识和风险识别。管理部分涉及一张小儿一度烧伤的照片，要求识别受伤程度和三种潜在的初步处理方法。风险识别部分要求正确识别不同年龄段最常见的烧伤机制，然后是一般识别 20 种家庭烧伤风险。使用双尾学生 t 检验和卡方分析、单变量和多变量分析以及线性回归分析对调查结果进行分析。
在 467 名受访者中，平均年龄为 36.57 岁，其中 59.7%（279 人）为男性。只有 3.2%的受访者能够正确识别我们调查中列出的所有 20 种潜在风险。此外，只有 4.5%的受访者能够正确识别所有三种适当的初始管理选项（冷水、无菌纱布和非处方止痛药），而不会错误识别不正确的选项。然而，56.1%的受访者能够选择至少一种正确的管理选项。对于基于图像的伤害分类，最常见的回答是错误的二度烧伤，有 216 人（42.2%），第二常见的回答是正确的一度烧伤，有 146 人（31.3%）。大多数受访者表示，他们不会为照片中呈现的伤害寻求医疗帮助（77.7%）。当比较有孩子和没有孩子的个人的反应时，在评估小儿烧伤的家庭风险方面，没有统计学上的显著差异。对于所有受访者，正确识别风险的平均得分为 38%。
这项研究揭示了公众对小儿烧伤家庭风险的认识存在显著差距。此外，虽然大多数人不会为一度小儿烧伤寻求医疗护理，但他们随时准备识别适当的初始管理方法。这种对家庭小儿烧伤的知识和理解差距应通过增加烧伤预防教育计划和更多的育儿咨询机会来解决。
