Role of household factors in parental attitudes to pandemic influenza-related school closure in Japan: a cross-sectional study

BMC Public Health

Shigeyuki Kawa¹  Minoru Kaneko¹  Mitsuo Uchida¹ 

[1] Center for Health, Safety and Environmental Management, Shinshu University, 3-1-1 Asahi, Matsumoto, Nagano 390-8621, Japan

关键词: Attitude;    Household;    School closure;    Pandemic;    Influenza;   

Others  :  1126062
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-14-1089

 received in 2014-05-07, accepted in 2014-10-10,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

To investigate how household background factors affect parental behavior during pandemic influenza-related school closures, we determined associations between such factors and three parental attitudes: “caring for the child”, “taking leave from work”, and “permitting out-of-home activities”.

Methods

A hypothetical pandemic influenza situation was presented and a questionnaire survey among households of 2146 schoolchildren from 6 schools was conducted. Odds ratios of background factors were estimated using univariate and multivariate logistic regression models.

Results

Responses pertaining to 1510 children indicated that junior high school (OR = 0.11), both parents working (OR = 0.03), and family including grandparent(s) or other relatives (OR = 7.50) were factors associated with “caring for the child”, and elementary school (OR = 2.28), special education school (OR = 3.18), and both parents working (OR = 5.74) were associated with “taking leave from work”. Having an older sibling (OR = 0.74) and awareness of the technical term for school closure (OR = 0.73) were factors associated with “permitting out-of-home activities”.

Conclusion

Not only work status but also other household factors may be associated with parental behaviors during pandemic influenza-related school closures.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Uchida et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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