Assessment of Mothers’ Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Shaken Baby Syndrome Hazards

Background: Shaken baby syndrome also known as abusive head trauma is signifying a constellation of symptoms and signs. It is the most common cause of death among newborn infants. Aim: This study aimed to assess mothers’ knowledge and attitudes regarding shaken baby syndrome hazards. Design: An exploratory descriptive research design was used in this study. Settings: This study was conducted at four maternal and child health (MCH) centers, including Helwan MCH center and three MCH centers affiliated to Fayoum city. Sample: A purposive sample was used to select 200 mothers have infant less than one year attended to the previous mentioned settings. Tools: Two tools were used in this study for data collection, 1) A structured interview questionnaire to assess mother's knowledge regarding shaken baby syndrome hazards, 2) Likert Scale to assess mothers’ attitude about shaken baby syndrome hazards. Results: More than two third of them had unsatisfactory knowledge regarding shaken baby syndrome hazards. Also, the study proved that, more than half of the studied mothers had appropriate attitudes regarding shaken baby syndrome hazards. Conclusion: The current study had answered the research questioned by evidence that, a high significant difference related to mother’s knowledge and their characteristics namely level of education and occupation (p-value =