Intervention to Prevent Fall Injuries to Young Children in the Home

University of Guelph

Status: Completed

Conditions: Wounds and Injuries

Treatments: Behavioral: Intervention components; Behavioral: Social Marketing Campaign

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01845415

450083 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

13AP011

Details and patient eligibility

About

Currently, six Public Health Units (PHUs) in Southwestern Ontario are taking part in the developed and implementation of a social marketing intervention campaign aimed at lowering the incidence of falls to children in the home; City of Hamilton - Public Health Services (Control), Durham Public Health, Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit, Niagara Region Public Health, Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health and Windsor Public Health (Control). This campaign is based on community-based intervention research and 'best practices' for improving parent attitudes and behaviours toward child safety. The campaign will focus on increasing parents' awareness and knowledge of fall injuries, positively impact parental attitudes to motivate them to want to implement strategies to reduce fall risks, and increase parental safety practices that would counteract the most common mechanisms that contribute to home falls for children at these young ages. The campaign will run from September 2013 through August 2014. The PHUs' social marketing campaign will strategically disseminate different materials to their respective communities: printed materials (posters, pamphlets), video modules about parenting safety, safety information through an e-Health website, and direction communication with parents through Family Health Team practitioners.

The proposed research project will request archival data from Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI), specifically from their National Ambulatory Care Reporting System (NACRS), on frequency of falls in the home to determine the extent to which the social marketing campaign is effective. Comparing pre-, during and post-intervention levels in the PHU communities will determine if and which social marketing strategies were effective. Additionally, random digit dialing will be used to assess pre vs post parental fall related attitudes, behaviors and intervention exposure. This evaluation will provide the first ever test of a community level intervention to reduce childhood falls in the home in Canada and will provide valuable information about what constitutes 'best practices' for preventing falls in the home among children 1 through 4 years of age.

Enrollment: 100 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 16 to 75 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• must be a parent or primary care giver of a child 1 through 4 years of age
• must live in one of the designated communities (by postal code)

Exclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Factorial Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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100 participants in 3 patient groups

Social Marketting Only

Active Comparator group

Description:

Two communities receive a social marketing campaign to reduce child falls in the home.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Social Marketing Campaign

No treatment Control

No Intervention group

Description:

two communities receive no intervention

Social Marketing plus Intervention

Active Comparator group

Description:

Two communities receive the social marketing campaign and additional intervention components

Treatment:

Behavioral: Intervention components

Behavioral: Social Marketing Campaign