Impact of Training on Knowledge and Attitude Regarding First Aid among Students of Schools of Ahmedabad

Abstract

Background: Accidents and injuries rank among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. However, it is often possible to minimize injury and crash consequences by providing effective pre-hospital services promptly. Appropriate knowledge on prevention, control and management of common illnesses and injuries will play a long way in reducing the morbidity and mortality. Hence training is a good step in reducing such mortalities. Method: About 300 students of two schools of Ahmedabad city were administered a pretested pre-designed questionnaire for assessing their baseline knowledge about selected first-aid skills, followed by on-the-spot demonstration of the skills by medical students and post intervention evaluation on the same day with same questionnaire. Results: The baseline knowledge about the objectives of first aid was only 36.6%. The range of knowledge about different aspects of first aid was 7.66% to 63.33% before training which increased to 39% to 92.33% as assessed after training. The lowest percentage of correct response was obtained regarding the management of foreign body in the wound (7.66%) before training. Chi square test showed that there was statistically highly significant difference in knowledge of students after training. Conclusion: Training of first aid should be incorporated as a part of school curriculum.

Keywords

• First aid
• education
• Training
• Education
• Injury
• Students