Allergy is a disease where the body is too sensitive to stimulation and causes a variety of responses such as coughing, colds, fever, diarrhea, itching, or severe reactions such as shortness of breath and many more. Allergies can lead to complications such as malnutrition, sleep disorders, and developmental disorders of children. Allergies are triggered by many factors, depending on the individual is sensitive to the allergen. Allergens or substances that can trigger allergies include cold, flower extracts, house dust mites, stress, and various foods and drinks. There are around 15% of Indonesian children who have allergies to house dust mites.
Management of allergies is unique because treatment is not essential when an allergic reaction arises, but rather to prevent and avoid allergic triggers. Prevention of allergic reactions, both the severity of symptoms and the frequency of onset of symptoms can reduce morbidity, disability, growth and development disorders, and even death.
House dust mite allergy can be prevented by recurrence by controlling the cleanliness of the home environment from mite in pillows, mattresses, bedsheets, dolls, many more. Mite eats the epithelium of the skin, hair, or parts of the human body that are very small, which falls when humans sleep or move. Dirt from mites contain compounds that can cause allergies in sensitive people. Thus, environmental control is essential to prevent the recurrence of allergies in children caused by house dust mites. But unfortunately, research shows parents still have less knowledge in controlling the environment. This lack of parental knowledge can increase the recurrence of allergies in children.
Health counseling for parents about home environment control is essential. The counseling provides sufficient time for an individual consultation, as well as discussing individual problems faced by each family in controlling the environment for allergic children. The activity also provides skills and knowledge about how to control the home environment to keep the population of house dust mites to a minimum by keeping the house clean.
Moreover, maintain the cleanliness of the house with people with allergies is somewhat different from usual. People should not use a feather duster, broom, and other equipment that causes flying dust. Furthermore, counseling plays a role in behavior change, such as the importance of environmental control, actions, evaluation, and adoption of environmental control behavior in the prevention of allergies. It has been proven to increase parent’s and children’s knowledge about allergies and knowledge, increase positive attitudes related to the importance of environmental control, and the skills of parents and children in maintaining a clean environment, which does not support the proliferation of house dust mites. (*)
Author: Ninuk Dian Kurniawati
Link:
http://www.indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=ijor:ijphrd&volume=10&issue=8&article=515
