| Abstract [eng] |
The research show that the pets reduce the children's stress level, improves the mood, increases the feeling of happiness, but careless behavior with an animal can bring trouble. Objective – to evaluate student's knowledge about the pets and indoor plants impact on children's well-being and health. Tasks: 1. Identify the prevalence of the pets and the indoor plants in children's homes and the children's behavior with pets. 2. Assess the impact of the pets on children's being and health. 3. Assess the children's knowledge about the impact of the pets on their health and well-being according to the children sex, age, the number of children in the family, the family status. 4. Assess the children's knowledge about the impact of the indoor plants on their health and well-being according to the children sex, age, the number of children in the family, the family status. Methodology. From December of 2016 to February of 2017, the students of the schools of Panevezys city and district were interviewed using anonymous questionnaire method. The selection unit – the class. It was necessary to interview 704 students. There were distributed 1100 anonymous questionnaires, of these returned 1000, which are suitable for analysis. For the statistical analysis of the categorical data, there was used Pearson chi2 test. When the expected value was less than 5, there was applied Fisher's exact method. In order to evaluate the risk and protective factors, there was calculated the odds ratio (OR) and its significance was assessed by 95% of the confidence intervals and p - value. For the statistical analysis, there were used the statistical packages of IBM SPSS Statistics 21 and WinPepi. The selected statistical significance level α = 0,05. The differences were considered statistically significant at p <0,05. Results. 75,7 % of children (95% CI [72,9 to 78,3]) have a pet. The keeping of pets at home depends on the gender and age. Usually there is kept a puppy – 53,3% (95% CI [49,7 to 56,8]) or a kitten – 22,9% (95% CI [20,1 to 25,9]). 87% of children have the indoor plants at home. The growing of the indoor plants depends on the gender and the place of residence. 78,2% has the indoor flowers. 52,1% of the students do not know what impact is done by the domestic animals on their health. 64,4% of the students do not know what impact is done by the indoor plants on their health. 55,1% of the respondents know that the indoor plants can cause the allergies. More girls – 63,4% than boys – 46,6% (p < 0,05). Conclusions. 1. The majority of the students have a pet. The prevalence of the pets in the families is different according to the students' gender, class, place of residence. The majority of the children have a dog or a cat. There was determined the links between the animal and the student's gender and age. The majority of the respondents have the indoor plants. The growing of the indoors plants is related to the student’s gender, class, place of residence. 2. The behavior of the children with a pet is partly risky: the children sleep with them, kiss them, the animals eat from their plates, caress of the animals of other people. The student’s risky behavior with the animal is associated with gender, class, place of residence. 3. The pets, in the opinion of the most respondents, have a positive impact on children's well-being and health. The positive influence of the respondents related to sex, family status, the number of children in the family, happiness, friends possession. 4. The knowledge of the children about the impact of the pets and the indoor plants on their health and well-being are not sufficient: a lot of them do not know what impact is done on their health: the animals can infect by the skin, gastrointestinal diseases, and the plants - can cause asthma, strengthen immunity. Keywords: the children, the pets, the indoor plants, the knowledge, the impact, the health, the prevalence. |
