Home injury reduction in children through installation of safety devices

January 01, 0001

Home injury reduction in children through installation of safety devices

These US and Canadian investigators conducted a randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of installing safety devices in the homes of young children on total injury rates and on injuries deemed a priori modifiable by the installation of these devices. Participants were mothers (n=355) and their children from birth to 3 years old participating in the Home Observation and Measures of the Environment study. The intervention consisted of installation of multiple passive measures (eg, stair gates, cabinet locks, and smoke detectors) to reduce exposure to injury hazards. Injury hazards were assessed at home visits by teams of trained research assistants using a validated survey.

They found: "The mean age of children at intervention was 6.3 months. Injury hazards were reduced in the intervention homes but not in the control homes at 1 and 2 years. There was no difference in the rate for all medically attended injuries in intervention children compared with controls: 14.3 injuries vs 20.8 injuries per 100 child-years; but there was a significant reduction in the rate of modifiable medically attended injuries in intervention children compared with controls: 2.3 injuries vs 7.7 injuries per 100 child-years."

The authors concluded: "An intervention to reduce exposure to hazards in homes led to a 70% reduction in the rate of modifiable medically attended injury."

These are low-cost measures that can prevent significant injuries.

For the full abstract, click here.

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med 165(4):339-345, April 2011 © 2011 to the American Medical Association
A Randomized Controlled Trial of Home Injury Hazard Reduction-The HOME Injury Study. Kieran J. Phelan, Jane Khoury, Yingying Xu, Stacey Liddy, Richard Hornung, Bruce P. Lanphear. Correspondence to Dr. Phelan: [email protected]

Category: A. General/IUnspecified. Keywords: injury, children, homes, prevention, randomized controlled trial, journal watch.
Synopsis edited by Dr Linda French, Toledo, Ohio. Posted on Global Family Doctor 19 April 2011

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