Mothers' Beliefs, Concerns and Preventive Practices regarding Pet Infection among their Children

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professors of Community Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing Tanta University, Egypt

2 Assistant Professors of Pediatric Nursing, Faculty of Nursing Tanta University, Egypt

Abstract

Background: Parents and pet owners typically have lack knowledge about zoonotic infectious diseases from pets and their effect on their children. Aim: Assessing mothers' beliefs, concerns and preventive practices regarding pet infection among their children. Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study design. Setting: This study was conducted at two medical centers and five maternal and child health care (MCH) centers at Tanta city. Subjects: A convenient sample of 250 mothers who had at least one child less than 18 years old and one or more pet animal in their homes. Tool: A Structured Interview Schedule was developed by the researchers contains six parts: mothers' socio-demographic data, history of pet ownership and contact, previous receiving information about pet infection, mothers’ concerns, beliefs and reported preventive practices regarding pets' infection. Results: 20.8% of studied mothers were very concerned about attracting pets' infection by their children, 69.6% of them had unsatisfactory preventive practices while, less than two thirds of them had positive believes toward pets' infection. Conclusion: less than two thirds of the studied mothers had positive believes regarding pets' infection. More than two thirds of them had unsatisfactory preventive practices. One quarter and one fifth of mothers were somewhat and very concerned that their children could catch a pet disease respectively. Recommendations: There is a need for health education on preventive practices of pet infection for pet-owning mothers with children at higher risk of infection