Knowledge and Practice of Primary Prevention of Rheumatic Heart Disease in Parents of Children With Acute Pharyngitis at Kenyatta National Hospital

Abstract

Background: Group A Streptococcal pharyngitis is an important and common childhood infection with the potential to cause Acute Rheumatic fever and Rheumatic heart disease (RHD). The disease is highly preventable but children rely on their parents who are the primary care givers to meet this need. It is therefore important to know their knowledge and practice regarding primary prevention of RHD in their children. Objective: To determine the level of knowledge and assess the practice of primary prevention of Rheumatic heart disease among parents of children with acute pharyngitis at Kenyatta National Hospital. Methodology: Descriptive cross-sectional study design with participants recruited through consecutive sampling. Participants were parents of children aged 3-15 years with acute pharyngitis at Kenyatta national hospital paediatric emergency unit. A total of 330 parents consented, were enrolled and interviewed through a semi-structured questionnaire. Dependent variables were knowledge and practice while independent variables were age, sex, number of people in the house hold, number of shared bedrooms, employment status, source of income and monthly household income. All data collected was analyzed using IBM statistics. Results: 67.3% of the respondents had poor knowledge. Overall mean score was 55.0%. 80.3% had previously practiced management sore throat in their children, with 86.8% seeking hospital treatment but with a substantial minority (30.4%) not completing treatment. Conclusion: The participants had poor level of knowledge on primary prevention of RHD. However, majority had practiced sore throat management in their children and had preferred hospital treatment for that episode. Recommendation: Sore throat awareness should be incorporated into every clinical consultation involving sore throat treatment especially in high risk groups aged 3-15 years.