Assessment of parents' knowledge and attitude with a child hospitalized with Covid-19 disease

Introduction: Covid-19 is a public health emergency around the world that has affected all members of society, especially vulnerable groups, including children. Current research has been conducted to establish knowledge and attitudes about the infection and spread of covid-19 disease and related factors in parents of hospitalized children. METHOD: In this descriptive-analytical study, 250 parents of children admitted to the 17 Shahrivar Medical Education Center, affiliated with Gilan University of Medical Sciences, were selected from samples available from October to the end of December 2019 for 3 months. The criteria for participation in the study were a minimum of literacy and informed consent to participate in this study. Data were collected and analyzed using an investigator-designed questionnaire, which includes a questionnaire to measure knowledge and attitude after verifying validity and reliability (Couder-Richardson coefficient 0.8 for the knowledge part and Cronbach's alpha coefficient 0.82 for the attitude part). RESULTS: the parental knowledge average was 10.32 (good) and the parental attitude average was 19.17 (average). A significant positive association was also observed between knowledge scores and parental attitudes (P <0.001). The mean knowledge and attitude scores of parents living in urban areas were significantly higher than those of parents living in rural areas (P = 0.004, P = 0.002), respectively. Mean knowledge and attitude scores in mothers with a bachelor's degree were significantly lower than in other mothers (P <0.001, P = 0.001, respectively); similar results were observed for the education of fathers. Furthermore, a positive and significant relationship was observed between knowledge and household income (p <0.001). CONCLUSION: By examining average parental attitudes towards COVID-19 in children, various strategies, including awareness programs and the presentation of findings to country health officials, can help improve parental attitudes and knowledge. These measures will lead to a faster fight against infectious diseases, including Covid 19.