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Annals of Advances in Automotive Medicine

QUANTIFYING RESULTS OF A COMPREHENSIVE SCHOOL-AGE CHILD INJURY PREVENTION PROGRAM Nicole Kozma, MPH, Anyah Land, MPH, Catherine Rains, MPH, Greta Todd, MA, St. Louis Children’s Hospital OBJECTIVES 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 emergency room utilization and are often preventable. School-based interventions on bicycle and pedestrian safety practices as are effective at increasing knowledge. This paper identifies injury prevention topics most suitable for elementary school-aged children living in a metropolitan area. National, state, and hospital data were used to create the program context and evaluation tools. Methods for evaluating safety knowledge among elementary students and best practices for pediatric hospitals to collaborate with schools and community organizations to prevent injury will also be discussed. METHODOLOGY St. Louis Children's Hospital, a level-1 trauma center, created Safety Street exhibit to teach children in grades kindergarten-fifth grade about injury prevention during a one-hour intervention. Topics were chosen according to the highest number of emergency room admissions by age and gender as reported by the hospital’s trauma registry over a ten year period. A lifesize 50’ x 70’ interactive cityscape exhibit was created with learning stations that address unintentional injuries that a child would typically experience in their community. Students in kindergarten-second grade completed a knowledge assessment about pedestrian and bicycle safety. Third-fifth grade students completed a knowledge assessment on motor vehicle safety. Child participants were given an electronic pre and post-test to assess their knowledge on basic street safety topics. Data was collected via Classroom Participatory System (CPS) clickers using a representative sample of all participants (Confidence Level 95%, CI 2, N=6,302). A sample of participants was given a pre-test (2,071 students, 32.9%) and a post test (1,919 students, 30.5%) to assess their knowledge of safety topics. Data was entered into SPSS 19.0 for analysis. 6,302 children in 35 urban and suburban elementary schools participated in Safety Street presentations during the 2011-2012 school year. RESULTS Participants answered correctly and significantly on a majority of the safety knowledge questions for both curricula. Kindergarten-second graders increased mean test scores by 21.8% (Mean=0.631 vs 0.849, pvalue ≤0.001, t=28.480). Third-fifth graders increased mean test scores by 11.4% (Mean=0.668 vs 0.781, p-value ≤0.001, t=10.259). There was a significant Chi-square result (p-value

Quantifying results of a comprehensive school-age child injury prevention program.

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