Intervention to Prevent Fall Injuries to Young Children in the Home
Condition: Wounds and Injuries
MeSH terms: Wounds and Injuries
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Currently, six Public Health Units (PHUs) in Southwestern Ontario are taking part in the
      developed and implementation of a social marketing intervention campaign aimed at lowering
      the incidence of falls to children in the home; City of Hamilton - Public Health Services
      (Control), Durham Public Health, Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit, Niagara Region Public Health,
      Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health and Windsor Public Health (Control). This campaign
      is based on community-based intervention research and 'best practices' for improving parent
      attitudes and behaviours toward child safety. The campaign will focus on increasing parents'
      awareness and knowledge of fall injuries, positively impact parental attitudes to motivate
      them to want to implement strategies to reduce fall risks, and increase parental safety
      practices that would counteract the most common mechanisms that contribute to home falls for
      children at these young ages. The campaign will run from September 2013 through August 2014.
      The PHUs' social marketing campaign will strategically disseminate different materials to
      their respective communities: printed materials (posters, pamphlets), video modules about
      parenting safety, safety information through an e-Health website, and direction communication
      with parents through Family Health Team practitioners.

      The proposed research project will request archival data from Canadian Institute of Health
      Information (CIHI), specifically from their National Ambulatory Care Reporting System
      (NACRS), on frequency of falls in the home to determine the extent to which the social
      marketing campaign is effective. Comparing pre-, during and post-intervention levels in the
      PHU communities will determine if and which social marketing strategies were effective.
      Additionally, random digit dialing will be used to assess pre vs post parental fall related
      attitudes, behaviors and intervention exposure. This evaluation will provide the first ever
      test of a community level intervention to reduce childhood falls in the home in Canada and
      will provide valuable information about what constitutes 'best practices' for preventing
      falls in the home among children 1 through 4 years of age.
    


Intervention name(s): Social Marketing Campaign; Intervention components
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The campaign will involve distribution of posters throughout the communities promoting awareness of the consequences of fall injuries and encouraging people to go to an website that provides safety information and injury stories.; Doctors and nurses in these communities will perform health education to parents of 1 through 4 year olds around the risks of falls in the home when these parents visit the doctor for regular visits. Also, several parenting classes in these communities will be modified to include educational videos and discussion of these issues
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Factorial Assignment
Masking: Single (Participant)
Primary purpose: Prevention