Awareness and practices on toy safety among mothers of preschool children

Poor parental knowledge and attitudes often contribute to inappropriate management and practices of child care. This baseline study aimed to assess the awareness and practice of parents of preschool children regarding toy safety in a selected children's hospital at Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu. Using a descriptive research design, 60 mothers of preschool children were selected by convenience sampling technique. Structured questionnaire was distributed to assess the awareness and practice on toy safety. The finding showed that 93% of mothers had inadequate awareness and 48% had moderately adequate practice on toy safety. There was a statistically significant association between level of awareness with maternal age (p=0.0004), maternal occupation (p=0.0001), fathers occupation (p=0.0014) and monthly income (p=0.0305). The study suggests that parents need to be taught on toy safety guidelines and practices so that toy related injuries could be avoided among children.