Mehdi Mojadam - Department of Disaster and Emergency Health, School of Public Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran
Morteza Abdullatif Khafaie - Social Determinant of Health Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Khuzestan, Iran

Introduction: Accidents are one of the most important health problems that always threaten children, and inability caused by them not only affects their health but also their education and other dimensions of their life and their families. Therefore, mothers awareness of incident prevention methods, especially choking, is very important. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the prevalence of choking in children less than 2 years old and to assess the awareness of mothers referring to health centers in Ahvaz city. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 100 mothers with at least one under two years old child who referred to Ahvaz health centers to receive routine mother and child care were selected during 2017. Four health centers were randomly selected as clusters from all listed centers and subsequently 53 mothers from west and 47 mothers from East of Ahvaz were recruited. Mother’s awareness measured using a standardized researcher made questionnaire. The groups difference was investigated by chi-square and one-way ANOVA as appropriate. Logistic regression was also used to investigate the association between history of chocking and mother’s awareness. Results: The present study showed that the prevalence of choking in children younger than 2 years old was 19%, and the mean level of awareness of mothers was 16.53 ± 3.51; corresponding for 60% of total awareness score. Despite the higher awareness score among mothers with a child with history of choking there was no significant relationship between the prevalence of choking and awareness of mothers. Conclusion: Although most of mothers had awareness about choking, the frequency of choking was considerable. Therefore, it is suggested to conduct more extensive studies using qualitative method to extract important and effective factors in the occurrence of such events among mothers with child choking experience and design effective interventions for preventative measures in mothers.

Choking, Awareness, Mothers, Children