title: Factors associated with mothers' beliefs and practices concerning injury prevention in under five-year children, based on health belief model.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Injuries are the first leading but predictable, avoidable and preventable cause of death among under five-year children worldwide. The present study aimed to identify the factors associated with mothers' beliefs and practices concerning injury prevention in under five-year children.
  
  
  METHODS
  This cross-sectional study was conducted from August to October 2011 in Hamadan County, the west of Iran, enrolling 580 mothers with at least one under five-year child. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire including 85 questions regarding demographic characteristics; knowledge; practices; Health Belief Model (HBM) constructs; and history of injury occurrence among the children. The reliability of the questionnaire was evaluated by a pilot study using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Data had been collected through interview with mothers, by trained interviewers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Almost 22.59% of mothers reported at least one injury in their under five-year children. Of 131 injuries occurred, 85 cases were mild, 23 cases were moderate, and 23 cases were severe. About 52.67% of injuries occurred in boys, 37.41% in less than one-year children, 73.28% at home, and 61.07% when the children were playing game. Fall (24.28%), burn (20.61%) and poisoning (14.50%) were the common causes of injuries. There was a positive correlation between mothers' practices and knowledge, perceived benefits, cues to action and self-efficacy and a negative correlation between mothers' practices and perceived susceptibility, severity, and barriers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Knowledge, perceived severity, perceived barriers, cues to action, and self-efficacy of mothers toward the injuries in children were among the most important predictive constructs, which may be used for planning educating programs.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Health Sciences, Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Hamadan University of Medical Sci-ences, Hamadan, Iran.
authors.forename: Jalal
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Poorolajal
authors.forename: Parvin
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cheraghi
authors.forename: Seyed Mohammad Mahdi
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Hazavehei
authors.forename: Forouzan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rezapur-Shahkolai
mesh_terms: D000061:Accidents, Home / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017678:Sex Distribution; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control*
keywords: Child injury; Health education; Health promotion; Iran; Safety promotion