Parental knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding safe handling and disposal of alcohol-based hand sanitizers and surface disinfectants in urban Sri Lanka

Abstract

Introduction: Hand sanitizers were increasingly used in most households during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to assess knowledge and practices regarding the safe handling and disposal of alcohol-based hand sanitizers and surface disinfectants in urban Sri Lanka. 

Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed including parents of children admitted to North Colombo Teaching Hospital for a period of one year in August 2021.  Data were collected regarding parental knowledge about the safe handling and disposal of hand sanitizers, and their health hazards by paediatric post-graduate trainees. All data were analyzed using SPSS 17.0. Chi-square test was used to find the association of overall knowledge and attitude scores with potential socio-demographic determining factors.

Results: A total of 153 parents were recruited. The majority of mothers (126, 82.4%) and fathers (133, 86.9%) had attended up to secondary school. Approximately 113(73.9%) parents believed that pre-school children were the most vulnerable for accidental ingestion of sanitizers and 40 parents (26.1%) did not believe that sanitizer solutions can be accidentally inhaled by toddlers. Only 132 parents (86.2%) knew how to disinfect their home premises safely and 29 parents (18.9%) didn’t know how to store cleaning products safely. Overall, lower knowledge scores correlated with lower maternal education (p<0.05) and lower socio-economic status (p<0.05). The gender (p = 0.06) and age of the parent (>35 years versus <35 years) (p = 0.21) did not show a significant association. Attitude scores positively correlated with parental education (p<0.002) and socio-economic status (p<0.03). The gender (p = 0.12) and age of the parent (>35 years versus <35 years) (p = 0.07) did not show a significant association. 

Conclusion: Overall knowledge and attitude scores in parents were associated with the education level of parents and the level of socio-economic status. Gender and parental age did not show a significant association.