Can Child Accidents Be Prevented in Your Community?

THE FACT THAT NO immunization procedure could have prevented the accident which resulted in the fatal burning of a 2 year old child who had been playing with matches, in no way lessens the sorrow or anguish of the bereaved parents. The fact that no simple scientific method has been developed which could have prevented the deaths of about 12 000 children aged 1 to 14 who died last year as the result of accidents, in no way lessens the distress and the social and economic losses resulting from these deaths. But these facts do emphasize the responsibility of medical and public health agencies to study, develop, and apply effective measures for the control of mortality and morbidity resulting from accidents.

Although the accident death rate among insured children in the age group 1 through 14 showed a 29 per cent reduction during a recent 15 year period, this decline was not consistent and compares unfavorably with the reduction in child deaths due to disease. As a result, accidents today represent the first cause of death among children and present a major child health problem. While much remains to be learned through research regarding the underlying physical and emotional factors responsible for accidents and involved in accident proneness, still we are far from utilizing fully our present knowledge as to the prevention and control of accidents.

NATIONAL APPROACH TO CHILD SAFETY

In an effort to stimulate more intensive interest in the subject of child safety, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company with the cosponsorship of the Children’s Bureau of the Federal Security Agency, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the National Safety Council, has launched a continuous child safety program. It is the distinct purpose of this program—

1. To encourage parents, other adults, and older children responsible for the health and happiness of younger children, to

   1. recognize the accident hazards confronting young children;
   2. provide and maintain safe conditions for the child in the home and at play;
   3. help the child through example and guidance, to develop safe practices.

2. To encourage public health, medical, and other interested agencies to give added emphasis to child safety in their own programs.

CHILD SAFETY—A COMMUNITY CHALLENGE

The effectiveness of any effort to reduce the frequency and severity of child accidents will in the final analysis depend upon the steps taken by each community throughout the nation to study the child accident problem and to stimulate individual and collective control measures within its area of influence. The seriousness of this problem justifies such community action on an organized and sustained basis. Although local problems may warrant special emphasis and adaptation, child safety activities, where practical, should be integrated into the overall health and safety program of the community. . . .

OBTAINING FACTS REGARDING CHILD ACCIDENTS

Factual information regarding the frequency, types, and causes of child accidents in the community is essential to the development of an effective program. Such data are also necessary to the preparation of essential educational and publicity material. The collection and analysis of such data can in themselves serve as an effective educational device.

Data regarding the occurrence of fatal accidents to children are usually obtainable from the records of the local health and police departments. A follow-up of these records by a detailed questionnaire submitted to and filled in by the reporting physician (a plan followed by the Kansas State Department of Health and by the Nassau County, New York, Department of Health), or by personal interviews with members of the injured child’s family, is desirable.

Programs based entirely on fatal accident data will fail to include many important causes of permanent and temporarily disabling injuries. Through the cooperation of physicians, visiting nurses, hospital and police authorities, case histories and other data regarding nonfatal injuries to children may be obtained. Questionnaires distributed through the schools and house-to-house interviews by trained interviewers have been used to collect such data.

Factual data regarding child accidents should include the age and sex of the child; the area of the community where the child lives and was injured; the place of the accident, i.e., home, school, playground, street, at work, or other specified location; the kind of accident; the nature and seriousness of the injury; the unsafe environmental conditions or practices involved in the accident. Where possible to obtain, information regarding the underlying causes of individual accidental injuries—such as contributing physical impairment of the injured, and the psychological, emotional, and sociological factors involved—is a valuable diagnostic aid. . . .

PRESS PUBLICITY

Frequent references to the local child safety program and facts concerning the child accident problem of the community printed in the local press, will prove a valuable means of stimulating widespread interest and of encouraging additional activities. Such publicity might well include news items regarding various activities of the child safety program, editorial comments, signed articles or endorsement (by prominent local people), weekly analyses of local child accidents, human interest stories of child accidents, question and answer contests, photographs, cartoons, etc.

RADIO

The local radio station can contribute to the child safety campaign by utilizing national program material dealing with child safety, and by arranging for special programs over the local station. These special programs might include the broadcasting of local addresses on child safety, the presentation of locally developed skits, spot announcements, interviews with prominent citizens interested in child safety, etc. . . .

MEETINGS AND ADDRESSES

The effectiveness of the local child safety program can always be increased through the use of the spoken word. The regular meetings of local civic, service, patriotic, fraternal, neighborhood, parents, and women’s groups provide an opportunity to introduce the child safety theme through scheduled addresses by competent individuals interested in the various phases of the problem. Arrangements can also frequently be made to have speakers appear before religious bodies, or material can be furnished to the religious leaders for their own use. Skits and demonstrations on child safety can be used effectively at these meetings.

To take full advantage of this method of reaching the public, a speakers bureau may be desirable.

EXHIBITS AND DEMONSTRATIONS

Exhibits of safe toys, safe nursery equipment, and other materials pertaining to child safety usually provide an effective means of instructing the public and of stimulating widespread community interest. Such exhibits may be used at organization meetings and may be displayed in store windows or other public places where they will be seen by large groups. Local merchants may be interested in developing and arranging for the display of such exhibit material. To stimulate community-wide interest in this project a contest might be conducted to determine the most effective and constructive exhibit displayed during a specified period. For example, a safe toy exhibit displayed in various store windows during the first week or two of the Christmas buying season may prove of considerable value.

DISTRIBUTION OF MATERIAL

Effective material, booklets, leaflets, hand dodgers, etc., pertaining to child safety, distributed directly to homes will aid materially in informing the public of the seriousness of the child accident problem and of means of preventing such accidents. In addition to material of this nature, which may be obtained from national or state agencies, locally prepared material can be used effectively. Various methods have been used for distributing material. For example, it has been furnished to children in the schools to take home to their parents; it has been enclosed with the bills of public service organizations, stores, etc.; and has been given house-to-house distribution by local representatives of insurance companies. It has also been used effectively as a teaching device by public health nurses. . . .

SUMMARY

At the present time, accidents are the first cause of child deaths and an outstanding cause of child morbidity in this country. The reduction of child accidents during the past fifteen years has by no means approached the marked reduction of child mortality and morbidity due to disease. Accordingly, child accidents represent a major child health problem requiring further study and research and the more effective utilization of present knowledge regarding prevention and control.

The seriousness of the child accident problem presents a definite challenge to responsible public health agencies for the initiation and conduct of well organized community programs planned to coordinate the activities of all local official and nonofficial agencies interested in child safety.