Impact of a Health Promotion Program on Parents' Knowledge about Kawasaki Disease

Abstract

Purpose. A diagnosis of Kawasaki disease (KD) in children is often associated with morbidity and sudden death due to serious cardiac sequelae of the disease. A body of literature on parents' knowledge of long-term home care for children afflicted with the disease indicates knowledge as crucial for maintaining the children's and parents' quality of life. The concept of parents regarding home care is influenced by discharge teaching in the hospital. Methods. The sample consisted of 34 parents whose children had been admitted to the pediatric ward of a major hospital in Taiwan upon diagnosis of KD. A control group (n=14) received routine discharge teaching; the study group (n=20) received health promotion program. Each parent filled out a questionnaire to assess the knowledge level on the day before the child was discharged. Results. The results of this study indicate that the program significantly increased the knowledge score of parents. Conclusions. Our data suggest that applying this program in discharge teaching and using questionnaires to rate parental knowledge may establish a standard of discharge teaching and assessment about the disease in clinical practice.