Parental knowledge, attitudes, and practices about vocal hygiene for their children in Chengdu, a city from China

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of parents towards vocal hygiene for their children and explore the barriers against implementation of vocal hygiene in Chengdu, a city from mainland China.

An online questionnaire on knowledge, attitudes, and practice was available for parents to complete between March 1 and March 31, 2017. The questionnaire included 5 sections, general demographics; knowledge; attitudes; practices and barriers; and expectation. Scores were calculated for each category of knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and were compared using nonparametric Mann–Whitney U tests between the parents with and without a history of voice disorders. The internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach alpha coefficient. The correlations between vocal hygiene knowledge, attitude, and practice were analyzed using Spearman correlation test.

The questionnaire was completed by 1075 parents. There were certain misconceptions in vocal hygiene knowledge among parents, and the parents had higher level knowledge of positive factors than negative factors about vocal hygiene. Attitudes towards vocal hygiene were positive. Practices of vocal hygiene were poor. The most common barriers to implementation of vocal hygiene practices were related to lack of awareness and knowledge for this topic.

The level of parental vocal hygiene knowledge, practice, and barriers suggest that carry out vocal hygiene programs extremely urgent for school-aged children and their parents.