Rubia D. Alencar (Brazil)
UNESP - Universidade Estadual Paulista - Faculdade de Medicina de Botucatu NursingAuthor Of 1 Presentation
THE INFLUENCE OF PARENTS ON THEIR CHILD’S ACCESS TO INFORMATION ABOUT COVID-19 IN BRAZIL: A MIXED-METHODS STUDY
Abstract
Background and Aims
Health literacy entails people's knowledge and competences to obtain, process, and understand health information and services to make appropriate health decision. Health literacy takes an important role in influencing people’s actions to slow down the spread of diseases, as well as how people interact with healthcare systems that deals with illnesses. This paper will discuss the role parents play in their child’s access to information about COVID-19 and their decisions to share or limit information about COVID-19.
Methods
A sub-set of data from an international mixed-methods study was analyzed to elucidate Brazilian’s findings. An online survey was conducted from 29th April to 1st of June 2020, gathering the views from parents of children aged 7 to 12 years old. The methodological framework of Bardin content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data.
Results
The sample consisted of 112 (88,9%) mothers and 14 (11,1%) fathers, distributed across 3 regions of Brazil. The parents reported receiving their information about COVID-19 from a range of sources, with government websites being the most prevalent (n=71/126), followed by television (n=69/126), and the internet (n=64/126). The analysis of the parents open text resulted in two categories: “How parents share information with their children about COVID-19” and “How parents limit information to their children about COVID-19”.
Conclusions
Many parents reported adopting an honest and open approach on how they shared information with their children, whilst some parents chose to minimize their child’s access to information about the pandemic COVID-19.