Reducing the risk of choking in children: A MOOC (massive Open Online Course) to teach how to prepare food

To try to respond, at least partially, to the need for education initiatives targeted at adults supervisors, with an easy and accessible communication format, a Mooc (massive open online course) for disseminating information on these injuries, has been realized.

The project consists of a series of informative videos freely available on a dedicated website. The contents are intended for an audience mainly of parents, educators and childcare professionals.The videos are available in English, Italian, Spanish and Italian Sign Language and will be available in Portuguese, French, Arabic, Russian, Chinese and Japanese. The video contents are realized on the basis of data provided by the Susy Safe registry, a DG Sanco co-funded project started in February 2005, which was aimed at establishing an International registry of foreign body injuries in children aged 0-14. Currently, the registry has collected over 25.000 cases. The information regarding the foreign body details and the circumstances of the injury allows the identification of the food foreign bodies causing injuries with greater frequency. Presently Food bones, Nuts and Seeds and grains have the highest incidence, accounting respectively for 32%, 22% and 21%. Nevertheless, less frequent but more severe injuries, which can cause death, are those due to meat, sweets and other foods which share certain characteristics: shape, size, and consistency.

US and Canada International Guidelines for food preparation have been used as a basis for developing food preparation instructions. Following the recommendations provided by the International guidelines the videos provide basic information addressed to those who have the task of preparing food for children, explaining in a clear and as simple as possible manner how to reduce the risk presented by certain foods. With simple measures even the most dangerous foods can be safely consumed by children.

The project consists of five short informative videos (2 to 3 minutes each). In each video a specific topic closely related to the problem of food choking in children is clearly addressed covering a particular aspect of the problem: epidemiology, children anatomy, obstruction mechanism (partial and total), child's behavior at the table, food preparation. Each topic is presented by a field expert: a Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, an ENT Doctor, a Pediatrician, a Researcher, a professional Chef de cuisine. Furthermore, people of different ethnic and social backgrounds (in many cases parents of young children) participated voluntarily to the realization of the videos.

According to the data offered by the Susy Safe registry, when the injury happened, 85% of children were eating while 12% were playing and almost 40% of injuries happened under adults’ supervision. These data show a lack of information and the need to implement specific educational campaigns targeted to families and supervisor, free and accessible to anyone, capable of reaching people from diverse ethnic, social and cultural backgrounds.