Knowledge of parents regarding care of neonate undergoing phototherapy

Abstract

Background: Neonatal jaundice is the most common problem in the 1st week of the neonate. About 60% of neonates are diagnosed with neonatal jaundice visibly in the 1st week of life. About 5%–10% of neonates have clinical significance requiring phototherapy or other treatment. Jaundice is caused by bilirubin deposition in the skin. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the level of knowledge among parents regarding the care of neonates undergoing phototherapy, and to assess the effectiveness of the information booklet. Materials and Methods: In the present study, the researcher adopted a quasi-experimental pretest, posttest control group design. The sample size was 120, control group 60, and experimental group 60. Nonprobability purposive sampling technique was used to collect the data. Researcher used prevalidated structured questionnaire. The average time taken by each sample for answering the question was 15–20 min. Data analysis was done mainly using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The findings show that knowledge among parents of neonates regarding care of phototherapy in the pretest 71.67% sample were having good knowledge, 25% were having poor knowledge, and 3.33% sample were having excellent knowledge. In the posttest experimental, 70% sample were having excellent knowledge. Conclusion: The study shows that the knowledge of the parents improved substantially after the administration of the information booklet. No association was found with any of the demographic variables.