Background: Parental knowledge of their child's heart disease, while often
overlooked, contributes to compliance and reduces anxiety. Prior studies ha
ve shown that 36% of parental diagnostic descriptions are incorrect.
Objectives: To assess parental knowledge and attitudes among outpatients at
a hospital pediatric cardiology clinic.
Methods: Seventy-four families completed a questionnaire in which they desc
ribed their child's condition and stated their attitude towards dental hygi
ene and future prenatal diagnosis.
Results: Eighteen percent of the parents failed to describe their child's m
alformation correctly. We found that parental understanding of the heart de
fect correlated with parental education. Future prenatal diagnosis was cons
idered by 88% of families, and termination of pregnancy by 40%, Only 40% of
children were aware of their heart problem. Children of parents who were i
gnorant about the condition tended to lack knowledge themselves. An additio
nal finding was that 68% of Jewish families turn to non-medical personnel f
or medical advice - an interesting finding not hitherto addressed.
Conclusions: ignorance of their child's problem did not correlate with its
severity or complexity but rather with parental background: the less educat
ed the parent, the more likely was the problem perceived incorrectly.