Parents’ knowledge towards their child suffering from fever

Abstract

Introduction

Being a common problem in childhood, fever is one of the major concerns for parents in situations of illness of their children, mainly due to the lack of information about its meaning or significance.

Objective

To identify the sociodemographic variables that interfere with parental knowledge about children with fever.

Methods

A quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive and correlational study in a non-probabilistic convenience sample consisting of 360 parents who attended the infant health surveillance consultations with their children in public health institutions in the center of Portugal. A self-reporting questionnaire with sociodemographic characterization and knowledge covering fevers in children was used.

Results

A sample with an average age of 34.7 years (± 7.9), mostly female (51.7%). Knowledge of the condition proved to be weak in parents aged ≥ 38 years (36.2%), with a partner or spouse (77.0%), from rural areas (69.3%) and education up to 9th grade (53.9%). Parents younger than 37 years of age (68.2%), with a partner or spouse (89.0%), from urban areas (53.0%) and a higher education (43.3%) showed good knowledge.

Conclusions

The results reveal the need for nurses to improve the parents' level of literacy in health, to enable them to care better for children suffering from fever.