TITLE:
First Aid Kit Uses among Commuter Bus Attendants in Nyamagana District, Mwanza City
AUTHORS:
Namanya Basinda, Giveness Zacharia, Joshua Patrick Ngimbwa, Joshua Patrick Ngimbwa, Stanley Mwita
KEYWORDS:
First Aid Kit, First Aid, Prehospital Care, Commuter Buses, Mwanza
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Epidemiology,
Vol.12 No.3,
August
8,
2022
ABSTRACT: Introduction: Provision of prehospital care in the event of a crash is vital to prevent loss of life and other severe outcomes. However, this involves adequate first aid knowledge and skills among vehicle attendants, and most importantly, the availability of the first aid kit items and knowing their uses. The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge, availability, and use of first aid kits among commuter bus attendants. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Nyamagana district, Mwanza, Tanzania in May 2018. A total of 240 were recruited randomly and interviewed using pretested questionnaires. Data was first entered in Microsoft Excel for data cleaning and consistent checks and thereafter exported to the software STATA for analysis. Results: Findings from the study showed that 22.9% of respondents had knowledge concerning first aid practice. Only 17.9% of the participants claimed to have ever had first aid training. All commuters had incompletely equipped first aid kits. Around 30.8% of the respondents reported having practiced giving first aid. Conclusion: The majority of commuter bus attendants were found to have insufficient knowledge of first aid and first aid kits, according to the current study. No vehicle had a complete kit despite the fact that the majority of the participants believed that having a first aid kit in the vehicle was essential. The majority of participants expressed a desire to assist and learn, indicating that efforts to train commuter attendants should be undertaken and potentially save lives.