Given the respected authority of health care providers, well-child health check-ups offer an opportunity for health care providers to communicate with parents about preventing injuries. However, competing health concerns and the limited time allotted to these visits may restrict the scope of this patient-provider interaction. Providing parents with computer-generated safety sheets tailored to their specific home environment may effectively complement the efforts of health care providers and result in increased adoption of prevention practices. A self-administered computerized questionnaire was developed to assess household risks of car-related injuries, burns, drowning, falls, and poisoning. Feedback materials were generated based upon the assessment responses. The feedback was in the form of safety sheets and discussed two of these five injury areas. Feedback was limited to two injury categories in order to focus the parents’ attention and to maximize the likelihood that they would carefully consider its content. To determine which two of these injury areas were the greatest priority for each respondent, an algorithm was developed based on the frequency and severity of the injury and the presence of household risks. Feedback materials reflected this prioritization and the specific risks that were present in each household. Prioritizing injury categories allows for communication materials to appropriately target the injury areas and corresponding practices that most warrant parental attention.
Learning Objectives: 1. Apply health communication principles to injury prevention research 2. Recognize the value of tailoring injury prevention messages to individual parents 3. Prioritize the relative importance of injury prevention behaviors related to five childhood, household injuries
Keywords: Child Health, Injury Prevention
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.