Children's parents' knowledge, attitude and practice for hand-foot-mouth disease in a street kindergarten in Shanghai

ObjectiveTo ascertain the knowledge-attitude-practice(KAP) condition of hand-foot-mouth disease among kindergarten children's parents, so as to provide basis for prevention and control strategy against the disease.

MethodsSome kindergartens in Longhua street of Xuhui District were selected via cluster sampling for the study; children's parents were investigated with self-designed questionnaire and their KAP data obtained were analyzed.

ResultsAmong these parents, their awareness rates of major prevalence population, transmission pathways, early symptoms, and preventive strategy were more than 70 percent.However, their knowledge of onset peak period, rash symptom and severe complications still needed to be improved, and those with lower educational background had poorer understanding of the disease.Parents had confidence in hand-foot-mouth disease prevention and control, and would send children for treatment in time.More than 70% parents paid attention to cultivating hand washing habits for children.Vaccination rate was 15.5%, major reasons for non-vaccination were security concerns and unclearness about protection effect of vaccine.After learning that vaccine can only prevent specific virus type induced disease, 53.5% parents would choose vaccination for children.Wechat, internet had been the most popular communication way for parents to obtain information about the disease and its vaccination.

ConclusionKnowledge of hand-foot-mouth disease among kindergarten children's parents needs to be enhanced, and health education should be provided according to parents' various conditions so as to improve their knowledge and willingness for vaccination against hand-foot-mouth disease.