Opportunities for enhancing unintentional injury prevention in children aged under five years in Muscat, Oman: A mixed methods study

AlMushaikhi, Muna ORCID: 0000-0003-2993-5101 (2024). Opportunities for enhancing unintentional injury prevention in children aged under five years in Muscat, Oman: A mixed methods study. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

Child law in Oman stresses the child’s right to safety and health, and the Ministry of Health provides a sophisticated child health promotion programme. However, there is a relatively high rate of unintentional injuries among children under five years of age. There is currently limited information about Omani caregivers’ awareness and practice of injury prevention and health promotion concerning child safety.
Aim: To explore the needs, challenges, and opportunities to enhance parents/caregivers’ awareness and practice concerning unintentional child injury prevention at home in Muscat, Oman.
Methods: Phase one was a systematic review to identify effective health education methods for injury prevention and their effectiveness in caregiver knowledge, skills, and attitudes. The second phase was a convergent parallel mixed methods design in two parts underpinned by the socioecological model (SEM). A survey was developed to explore Omani caregivers’ practice of child safety and the influencing factors with responses analysed descriptively. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with doctors and nurses working in primary healthcare centres in Muscat with data analysed using framework analysis based on the SEM. Quantitative and qualitative analysis was conducted separately with integration as the final step.
Findings: Complex multilevel factors influence caregiver awareness and child safety practices in Oman. There is a lack of caregiver knowledge concerning the benefits of some safety equipment, and some have a negative perception of the preventability of injury. Socio-economic factors such as big families, low income, and multiple caregivers are associated with inadequate supervision. Most caregivers had not participated in child safety education or parenting programmes.
Primary healthcare provides opportunities to integrate child safety within child health programmes, including regular visits to health centres. However, there are several challenges to the effective implementation of health education, including limited resources, time constraints and workload. Additional challenges relate to socio-economic status, neighbourhood safety, and willingness to attend health education sessions.
Conclusion: Caregiver safety education needs improvement. Ideally education will be tailored to account for different family and community contexts. Opportunistic delivery of safety information can be provided in waiting areas of primary health settings. Structured sessions should be delivered during appointments in health centres supplemented by online courses with interactive features through social media and webpages. Collaboration with other governmental sectors is necessary to empower working mothers and implement and enforce safety measures effectively.

Type of Work:	Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)
Award Type:	Doctorates > Ph.D.
Supervisor(s):	Supervisor(s) Email ORCID Taylor, Julie UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0002-7259-0906 Swift, Amelia UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0001-5632-4926 Garstang, Joanna UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0001-9268-0581
Licence:	All rights reserved
College/Faculty:	Colleges (former) > College of Medical & Dental Sciences
School or Department:	School of Nursing and Midwifery
Funders:	None/not applicable
Subjects:	R Medicine > RJ Pediatrics > RJ101 Child Health. Child health services R Medicine > RT Nursing
URI:	http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/15391

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