Assessing Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices of Parents Towards Physical Activity of Children with Asthma Referring to Ahvaz Teaching Hospitals

Parents are the primary caregivers and their positive knowledge, attitude, and practices play an important role in children’s future vision.
This study aimed to determine knowledge, attitude, and practices of parents of asthmatic children about physical activities in patients referred to teaching hospitals in Ahvaz during 2016.
In this cross-sectional study, 118 parents of children with asthma, admitted to the pediatric wards of teaching hospitals in Ahvaz, were selected by non-randomized consecutive method according to the inclusion criteria (P = 0.5, and d = 0.09). A researcher-made questionnaire (demographic information, knowledge, attitude, and practices of parents) was given to 20 parents after calculating cvr, cvi, and reliability confirmation through test-retest method by 10 professors. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and ANOVA. Management and data analysis was performed using the SPSS statistical software.
The results showed that the knowledge of 61.01% of parents was ideal and 38.13% intermediate, attitude of 51.69% was ideal and 48.30% neutral, and practices of 53.38% was ideal and 46.61% was intermediate towards physical activity in children with asthma. There was a significant association between the level of knowledge and attitude of parents with educational level (P = 0.0001), severity of asthma (P = 0.049), and duration of asthma (P = 0.049).
Overall, knowledge, attitude, and practices of parents on physical activities, such as swimming and gymnastics, was poor and it is suggested that parents be advised towards more allowed sports activities in children with asthma.