Evaluation of the knowledge and practices of those responsible for disinfecting pacifiers

• Autor(a) principal: Lopes, Danielle Fernandes
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Souza, Vívian Gonçalves Carvalho, Fabri, Rodrigo Luiz, Leite, Isabel Cristina Gonçalves, Apolônio, Ana Carolina Morais
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: HU Revista (Online)
• DOI: 10.34019/1982-8047.2021.v47.32572
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufjf.br/index.php/hurevista/article/view/32572
• topic: Pacifiers; Decontamination; Health Education; Child Health; Chupetas; Descontaminação; Educação em Saúde; Saúde da Criança

Introduction: The habit of sucking a pacifier is common in children, as this object is a vehicle for contamination and transmission of disease-causing microorganisms, thus requiring correct disinfection. Objective: To evaluate the pacifier disinfection practices carried out by the guardians of children using pacifiers or that have already used it. Material and Methods: After ethical approval, a semi-structured questionnaire (12 questions) was applied to parents and grandparents of children who maintained the habit of pacifiers or who has interrupted it for a maximum of two years. The questions dealt with pacifier disinfection habits, access to disinfection instruction and health professionals, including dentists. The association between categorical variables was established using the Chi-square test and continuous variables using Pearson's correlation. The level of significance adopted was 5%. Results: 104 questionnaires were considered for the sample. The average age of the respondents was 32 years, the majority of whom were women (91.3%). The average age of children who used a pacifier was 26 months. Although boiling water is the most reported method of disinfecting pacifiers (35.6%), 15.4% of respondents reported using only running water. In addition, only 20.2% of respondents received any instruction from health professionals on disinfection, and only 29.8% reported having already taken the child to the dentist. The association between the frequency of pacifier disinfection and the frequency of going to the dentist was statistically significant. Conclusion: The knowledge by parents and family members about the disinfection of pacifiers was not adequate in this study. This fact may be related to the lack of access to information, through health professionals.