267411 Safety Street: An Interactive Approach to Prevent Injury by a Nationally Recognized Pediatric Hospital

Monday, October 29, 2012 : 3:10 PM - 3:30 PM

Nicole F. Kozma, MPH , Child Health Advocacy and Outreach, St. Louis Children's Hospital, St. Louis, MO
Greta Todd Moorhead , Child Health Advocacy and Outreach, St. Louis Children's Hospital, St. Louis, MO
Anyah Land, MPH , Child Health Advocacy and Outreach Department, St. Louis Children's Hospital, St. Louis, MO
Catherine Rains, MPH , Child Health Advocacy and Outreach, St. Louis Children's Hospital, St. Louis, MO
According to Healthy People 2020, injuries are the leading cause of death for Americans age 1 to 44, and a leading cause of disability for all ages. Unintentional injuries are a common reason for ER utilization and are often preventable. A nationally recognized pediatric hospital created a unique injury prevention education program and interactive exhibit to serve children in the community. Children ages 4-8 learn about pedestrian and bicycle safety, stranger and stray animal awareness in a school setting. In fall 2011 program expanded to teach home, motor vehicle, playground/sports and water safety to children ages 9-11. The interactive exhibit places children in life-like scenarios to practice making safe choices. Trained adults teach kindergarten to second graders the proper way to cross the street, explain the meaning of white lights on vehicles, demonstrate proper railway crossing, and stranger and stray animal awareness. Third to sixth graders are asked to identify unsafe behaviors and hazards that could cause injury or death. Randomly selected classrooms were pre-tested prior to the program and post-tested as they exited the exhibit to assess knowledge gained. Pre and post test scores were compared using independent samples t-test using SPSS 19.0. Overall scores improved 10.25% (p<0.001) for kindergarten to second graders during spring 2011. Scores for the 2011-2012 school year are will be available in May. This intervention is an effective method to teach students about home and pedestrian safety and indentify hazards, potentially preventing injury in this population.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Describe methods to assess safety knowledge among elementary students. Identify ways for adapting pedestrian safety programs to older elementary students Identify injury prevention topics most suitable for the population using national, state, and hospital data

Keywords: Injury Prevention, Community Education

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have over 13 years in the field of public health programming and evaluation. In my current role, I manage community outreach programs for a pediatric hospital related to injury prevention and obesity prevention. In addition, I manage the evaluation of all of our department community outreach programs.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.