Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #113328

Anita Brentley, BA, MEd¹, Sheryl Allen, MD², Crystal Ricketts, PhD¹, Victor F. Garcia, MD³, Rebeccah Brown, MD¹, and Richard Falcone, MD⁴. (1) Trauma Service, Children's Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45229, (513) 636-8639, brej9o@chmcc.org, (2) Emergency Medicine, Children's Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45229, (3) Director, Trauma Service, Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45229, (4) Pediatric Surgery, Children's Hospital Medical Center, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, 45229, Albania

2. The Head Start Family Safety Program is a school-based prevention intervention program developed under the direction of the Cincinnati Children's Trauma program to reduce unintentional injuries in at risk preschool children. The program is designed to promote skills for long-term behavioral change. There are four intervention components: parent education, classroom curriculum, family safety fair and parent newsletters. The goal is to increase the presence of injury prevention education content in preschool science, math, language arts and movement lessons. Prevention devices and behaviors for home, motor vehicle, fire and pedestrian injuries are addressed through the 9 month curriculum. The lessons are intended to augment existing curricular goals, reinforce concepts, and enable students to practice acquired skills. The lessons are fun and easy to use for both teachers and students. Interactive lessons were used to design an intervention that can be integrated into the regular classroom instruction. Pre- and post-program evaluation revealed a significant increase in children's ability to recognize household dangers and to respond appropriately in unsafe situations. In addition, Head Start teachers went from spending an average of 15 minutes each week on injury prevention to 120 minutes each week.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss program planning recommendations for implementing a preschool injury prevention program.
• Describe elements of a successful educational intervention for preschoolers and their parents.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.