CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE

KNOWLEDGE AND MYTHS IN PARENTS ATTENDING CARDIOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN HOSPITAL AND INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH, LAHORE

Abstract

Objective: To assess the parental knowledge and myths related to etiology of congenital heart disease. Design: A cross
sectional descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: Out patient department, indoor and echocardiography rooms of Children Hospital
and Institute of Child Health (CH & ICH) Lahore, in two weeks of October, 2007. Patients and Methods: Convenient sampling technique was
used to recruit 299 children between 1 month and 14 years of age, suffering from congenital heart disease. Cases of rheumatic fever and
associated congestive cardiac failure were excluded from the study group. A structured questionnaire was used to interview parents of the study
group. Descriptive statistics was determined in terms of percentages. Results: Out of total 299 patients included in this study, 132 were in the
age group of 1 -5 years (44%), with the mean age 1.86 years ± 0.886 SD. 200 were males (67 %) and 99 were females (33%). The respondents
included 71% mothers and 27% fathers. Ventricular septal defect (VSD) was the most common disease encountered in 128 children (43%).
Regarding the causes of congenital cardiac defects, parents blamed cousin marriage (41%), inheritance (26%), increased maternal age(16
%), maternal smoking(16%) and paternal smoking (39%). Other responses included evil spirits, moon and sun eclipses and bad wishes/evil
eye. 57% of the respondents said that there is no relationship between gender and congenital cardiac malformation and 85% respondents
believed that there is no relation with the food taken in pregnancy and subsequent cardiac defects. High Salt intake was considered as an
associated factor by 47 (15%) of the respondents. Naming the cause of cardiac malformations, 41% of the parents said drugs taken in
pregnancy, 13% of the respondents blamed alcohol, cocaine and opium intake. Among parents, 73% were aware of the fact that maternal health
is important for disease causation in neonates but could not name any particular disease. Conclusion: The parents of those children, who have
congenital malformation, have different myths and fallacies associated with disease causation. Adequate health education strategies should
be adopted towards mass dissemination of information in the community about this important issue.