Parental Knowledge, beliefs and first-aid practices regarding febrile convulsion: a descriptive cross-sectional study in Tamale Teaching Hospital, Ghana

INTRODUCTION: Febrile convulsion is one of the most common form of convulsion among children and one of the most common causes of hospital admissions in children under five years of age. There is paucity of data on the study of febrile convulsion in Ghana and especially, the northern part of Ghana. Aim: the study assessed parental knowledge, beliefs, and first-aid practice regarding febrile convulsion at a tertiary health facility in the northern region of Ghana. METHODS: this was a cross-sectional descriptive hospital-based study involving 100 parents whose children were admitted with previous history of febrile convulsion. They were sampled purposively. A questionnaire was used to collect data from the parents at the children´s emergency and paediatric wards of the Tamale Teaching Hospital from 1st October 2018 to 31st December 2018. The Data was then analyzed using SPSS version 23.0. RESULTS: majority (95%) of the parents had heard about febrile convulsion and especially from family members. Overall good knowledge score was 59.0%. About (71.0%) identified the presentation of febrile convulsion as twitching of the face and stiffening of the neck. Furthermore, 87% belief that febrile convulsion is caused by high body temperature. Majority (69%) of the parents bathed their children with cold water as a first aid measure of febrile convulsion. Multivariate analysis showed that the belief witchcraft could cause convulsion, type of first aid intervention given and intervention given after first aid were all associated with parental knowledge of febrile convulsion (χ2=4.05, p=0.044), (χ2=9.52, p=0.021) and (χ2=6.45, p=0.040) respectively. CONCLUSION: the study revealed that parents had substantial idea about febrile convulsions. That notwithstanding, most of their first aid management yielded no positive outcome. Again, it is worth mentioning that some parents resorted to cultural practices in treating convulsions at home, such as smearing ground garlic on the bodies of their children during a convulsive episode in order to abort it. Others attributed the cause of it to supernatural powers and witchcraft.