Background: The treatment of minor injuries in school is merely tentative until the injured child returns home. At home, further treatment is provided consecutively by the parents of the injured child. However, there are certain differences between the treatments that children receive at school and at home, and appropriate treatment is sometimes not implemented at home.
Objective: This study aimed to examine the difference between the treatments provided by parents and Yogo teachers, and to determine how parents learned the skills used to treat minor injuries.
Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted with 474 parents of elementary school students and 233 Yogo teachers (153 were from elementary schools in two districts, and 80 were attendees at a seminar). The survey comprised questions covering 13 skills related to providing recommended treatments and 11 skills related to non-recommended treatments for wounds, sprains, nosebleeds, and head injuries. The questionnaire also included five sources of information on these skills (treatment experiences at home, at school, and at medical institutions; media information from books, TV, or the Internet; and first-aid training workshops). The skillsets of Yogo teachers and parents were compared using univariate statistical analyses. Additionally, multivariate analyses were used to evaluate the skills and information sources of parents.
Results: Valid responses were received from 239 parents (50.4%) and 161 Yogo teachers (69.1%). Significant differences existed between the skills possessed by parents and Yogo teachers for the treatment of wounds, sprains, nosebleeds, and head injuries. Specifically, parents used more non-recommended treatments than did Yogo teachers. Parents gained most of their skills from their treatment experiences at home, although some of those skills were related to non-recommended treatments. Further, parents learned many of the recommended treatments from their treatment experiences at school and at medical institutions, and some learned them from media information. However, parents learned some non-recommended treatments from their treatment experiences at school or media information.
Conclusion: To ensure the implementation of consecutive and appropriate treatments to children with minor injuries at home, parents and school teachers must relearn the treatments. It is beneficial for parents to use their experience for treating their children. Health services for childbirth and childcare, and children's school health activities are useful skill-learning opportunities for parents.
