EVALUATING THE LEVEL OF AWARENESS REGARDING CERVICAL SPINE INJURY AND APPROPRIATE FIRST AID RESPONSE AMONG SCHOOL TEACHERS IN SAUDI ARABIA

Abstract

Background: In a setting where injurious activities are to be expected, the best prevention of the worst outcomes possible is always needed. We intend in our study to shed light on the school environment and the high risk it holds of cervical spinal injuries. We aim to point out deficiencies in knowledge that would most likely be a barrier to best management and unfortunate outcomes prevention. That, inspired by previous studies one of which indicated 43.9% of patients (Saudi, male) who had spinal cord injuries were victims of cervical spine, and the apparent shortage of appropriate knowledge Saudi citizens have on those injuries.

Objectives: To assess the level of awareness regarding cervical spine injury and appropriate first aid response among schoolteachers in Saudi Arabia.

Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study, using a structured questionnaire followed by using Microsoft Office Excel for data entry and Statistical Package of Social Science Software (SPSS) program for analyzation. The minimal sample size of 384 was determined using the Qualtrics calculator with a confidence level of 95%.

Results: The total sample size was 519 with 70.1% were females and 29.9% were males. As regard knowledge and awareness score about cervical spine injury and appropriate first aid response among school teachers, there was 48.6% exhibited a high level of awareness regarding cervical spine injury and appropriate first aid response. Additionally, 29.1% of the participants, demonstrated a moderate level of knowledge on the subject. While 22.4% of the total sample, displayed a low level of awareness concerning cervical spine injury and appropriate first aid response. Moreover, there was a statistically significant relation to age (p value=0.049), and specialty (p value=0.016). While there was a statistically insignificant relation to gender, education level, nationality, region, monthly income and whether the participants had taken first aid course.

 Conclusion: Knowledge of first aid is critical for teachers to provide solutions in case of the occurrence of accidents especially for critical cases such as cervical injury. Our study concluded that the school teachers had good knowledge and awareness about the first aid measures of cervical injury with about 49% exhibited good knowledge and about 29% exhibited moderate knowledge about this regard. However, more training workshops were recommended for improving the first-aid practice of teachers.