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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Nancy L. Rothman, EdD, RN¹, Richard Tobin, MS, MPA², Tine Hansen Turton, MG³, Robert Himmelsbach, BA², and Rita Lourie, MSN, MPH, RN¹. (1) Department of Nursing, College of Health Professions, Temple University, 3307 N. Broad Street 602-00, Philadelphia, PA 19140, 215-707-5436, rothman@temple.edu, (2) Philadelphia Department of Public Health, 2100 W Girard Ave, Bldg #3, Philadelphia, PA 19130, (3) National Nursing Centers Consortium, 260 S. Broad Street 18th floor, Philadelphia, PA 19102

Lead poisoning remains the most preventable children's environmental health problem. The Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, City of Philadelphia, has partnered with the National Nursing Centers Consortium to provide Lead Safe Babies (LSB), a CDC and HUD funded primary prevention program with the goal of eliminating lead poisoning in at risk areas of the City. A scripted educational intervention is provided for pregnant women and caregivers of children less than one year old, along with a bucket of products that help eliminate the risk of lead in the environment. A pre/post-test, before and one month after the educational intervention, that addresses knowledge of lead poisoning is completed by caregivers. An environmental home assessment and lead dust swipes are done within the home. Homes with high lead dust levels had interim controls, e.g. sealing of windows. With a total N of 2,319 children, 1,116 were in homes with no prior lead elevations, 774 were born within six months of their enrollment in LSB and of these 95 were in homes that had interim controls. Caregivers had a significant increase in knowledge about lead poisoning. Using block groups assigned by geo-coding, higher risk blocks had 69% of LSB children, born within six months of their enrollment in LSB, with blood lead levels lower than the geometric mean for their block group. Seventy-one percent of the LSB children living in high risk blocks that benefited by interim controls had blood lead levels lower than the geometric mean for their block group.

Learning Objectives:

• to evaluate the primary prevention intervention, Lead Safe Babies
• to analyze the outcomes of Lead Safe Babies, including increased knowledge and decreased blood lead levels

Keywords: Lead, Child Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation