Aim: Mothers’ understanding and co-operation is an important factor supporting primary prevention and secondary prophylaxis for controlling rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease. We sought to determine mothers’ knowledge about different aspects of rheumatic fever.

Method: Participation of 500 mothers referred to healthcare centers in Guilan province was sought for the study which used a questionnaire to evaluate their knowledge about five different aspects of rheumatic fever.

Results: Among the 443 respondents, good knowledge about treatment was high (86 per cent); fewer mothers had a good level of knowledge about other aspects of treatment: epidemiology 34 per cent, symptoms 4 per cent, route of infection 27 per cent and complications 10.5 per cent. More educated women had significantly better knowledge about rheumatic fever.

Conclusion: Expanded health education is required to improve knowledge about this condition among the population.