Abstract
Objective
To evaluate the effectiveness of school-based interventions in promoting child safety and reducing unintentional childhood injuries.
Methods
This cluster randomized trial with 1:1 allocation of clusters to intervention and control arm was conducted in the public and private schools of Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka, over a period of 10 months. Study participants included children from standard 5–7 in schools selected for the study. 10 schools that could accommodate 1100 students each, were randomly allocated to the interventional and control arm. A comprehensive child safety and injury prevention module was developed based on the opinions of school teachers through focus group discussions. This module was periodically taught to the students of intervention arm by the teachers. The children in control arm did not receive any intervention. Outcome was assessed by determining the incidence of unintentional injuries and type of injuries from the questionnaire used at the baseline, and at the end of three, six, and ten months.
Results
Unintentional injuries declined progressively from baseline until the end of the study in both the interventional arm (from 52.9% to 2.5%) and control arm (from 44.7% to 32%) [AOR (95% CI) 0.458 (0.405–0.518); P value <0.001]. The decline in incidence of injuries in the interventional arm was higher than that in the control arm (50.4% vs 12.7%; P <0.001).
Conclusion
School based educational intervention using child safety and injury prevention modules is effective in reducing unintentional injuries among school children over a 10-month period.
Keywords: Education, Fall, Prevention, School health
Acknowledgements
Mr. Laxminarayana Acharya and Ms. Mamatha, Medical Social Workers and Ms. Shika J, Data Entry Operator for successful completion of the project.
Footnotes
Note
Supplementary material related to this study is available with the online version at www.indianpediatrics.net
Ethics clearance
Institutional Ethics Committee of Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore; No. IEC KMC MLR 12–14/285, dated 17 December, 2014.
Contributors
RH, DB: Concept and design, analysis, interpretation of data, drafting the article; BUK: Concept and design, interpretation of data, drafting the article, revising it critically; VK, NK: Interpretation of data, revising it critically for important intellectual content; RT, PM: Study design, interpretation of data, revising it critically for important intellectual content; AS: Revising the manuscript critically for important intellectual content and critical interpretation of the data captured; AG: Analysis of the data, drafting the manuscript and proof reading; HK: Data analysis and critical revision of the results. All authors approved the final version of manuscript, and are accountable for all aspects related to the study.
Funding
Indian Council of Medical Research
Competing interests
None stated.
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