Self-care to prevent infections of the urinary tract in children

Abstract

Background: Once it comes to infections, children are the weakest members of society and they gather together in nurseries
and kindergartens as their first communities. In recent years, parents were more eager to send their children to nurseries.
This research investigated self-care to prevent urinary tract infections in children.
Methods: This was a qualitative research using a contextual thematic analysis. Samples were selected from children with
urinary tract infections who attended nurseries of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences along with their parents, teachers
and the head of nurseries. Sampling was purposive and continued until data saturation which occurred with 10 participants
including 7 mothers whose kids experienced urinary tract infections and 3 nurseries' heads and teachers. Data were collected
in 2005 during appointments in nurseries by deep and semi-organized interviews. Each interview lasted between 30
to 50 minutes (average length was 40 minutes). Data were analyzed according to Straw-Bert model.
Results: Three main conceptions were derived from the experiences of participants on self-care to prevent urinary tract infections,
including: diagnosis of symptoms, dangerous factors and effective diet for prevention; control the disease, medication,
preventing effects and relapse into the disease by health care; additional interventions, diagnosis tests and follow-up.
Conclusion: According to the findings, the participants in this research experienced several factors that caused urinary tract
infections. These factors were different based on their knowledge and the existence or non-existence of health care support.
These results were supporting other studies on the subject.
Key words: Self care, urinary tract infection, children, contextual thematic analysis