Clinical trial NCT00850759: Using Virtual Reality to Train Children in Pedestrian Safety
Official title: Using Virtual Reality to Train Children in Pedestrian Safety
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: PHASE3
Conditions: Street-crossing Ability
Pedestrian Safety
Keywords: pedestrian safety
street-crossing ability
road-crossing
children
injury prevention
Lead sponsor: University of Alabama at Birmingham
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
First posted: 2009-02-25
Enrollment: 240
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 7
Maximum age (years): 8
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: Pedestrian injuries are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in American children ages 7-8, but existing behavior-oriented interventions achieve only modest success. One limitation to existing interventions is that they fail to provide children with the repeated practice needed to develop the complex perceptual and cognitive skills required for safe pedestrian activity.

Virtual reality (VR) offers a highly promising technique to train children in pedestrian safety skills. VR permits repeated unsupervised practice without risk of injury; automated feedback to children on success or failure in crossings; adjustment of traffic density and speed to match children's skill level; and an appealing and fun environment for training. The proposed research is designed to test the efficacy of virtual reality as a tool to train child pedestrians in safe street-crossing behavior.

A randomized controlled trial will be conducted with four equal-sized groups of children ages 7-8 (total N = 240). One group will receive training in an interactive and immersive virtual pedestrian environment. The virtual environment, already developed, has been demonstrated to have face, construct, and convergent validity. The second group will receive pedestrian safety training via video and computer strategies that are most widely used in American schools today. The third group will receive what is judged to be the most efficacious treatment currently available, individualized behavioral training at streetside locations. The fourth and final group will serve as a no-contact control group. All participants in all groups will be exposed to a range of field- and laboratory-based measures of pedestrian skill during baseline and post-intervention visits, as well as during a six-month follow-up assessment. Primary analyses will be conducted through linear mixed models designed to test change over time in the four intervention groups. We hypothesize all children in active learning groups will increase pedestrian safety skills, but the largest increase will be among children in the virtual reality group.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* 7 and 8 year old children living in Birmingham, Alabama, area

Exclusion Criteria:

* family plans to move within 6 months of recruitment
* visual or perceptual impairment (e.g., blindness) that are uncorrected and would prevent valid participation in protocol
* physical impairment (e.g., use of wheelchair) that would prevent valid participation in protocol
* cognitive impairment (e.g., moderate mental retardation) that would prevent valid participation in protocol

Primary outcomes:
measure: Street-crossing Ability
timeFrame: post-training and again 6 months later
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Birmingham
country: United States
facility: UAB Youth Safety Lab, University of Alabama at Birmingham
state: Alabama
Study officials:
affiliation: University of Alabama at Birmingham
name: David C Schwebel, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Schwebel DC, McClure LA. Using virtual reality to train children in safe street-crossing skills. Inj Prev. 2010 Feb;16(1):e1-5. doi: 10.1136/ip.2009.025288.
citation: Schwebel DC, Davis AL, O'Neal EE. Child Pedestrian Injury: A Review of Behavioral Risks and Preventive Strategies. Am J Lifestyle Med. 2012 Jul;6(4):292-302. doi: 10.1177/0885066611404876. Epub 2011 Jun 17.