The Role of Health Education in the Prevention of Injuries to Children

Abstract

This paper summarizes and assesses studies published over the past two decades describing the effects of health education on the prevention of childhood injuries. The definition of health education here includes patient education as well as aspects of legislation and regulation. A critical distinction is made between studies that use reported changes in behavior or knowledge as end points, and those that use either observed changes in behavior or an actual reduction in injuries. The results of the former often appear encouraging while those in the latter category are less convincing. In general, it appears programs based on social learning principles are more successful than those relying on traditional approaches. Overall, the most successful are programs that combine education with legislative change or modifications in regulations. The policy implication of these findings is that heavy investments in health education of a traditional kind, if used in isolation, will have only limited success. Instead, strategies that use health education along with other preventive strategies are most likely to achieve the goal of reducing the frequency or severity of nonintentional injuries to children.

A case-control study of pedestrian and bicyclist injuries in childhood.

“…Many of the most popular of these strategies rely on health education approaches, the efficacy of which appears to be distinctly limited. 4 Strong evidence has been presented to demonstrate that boys are more frequently injured in traffic than girls, and that living in lower socioeconomic areas is a risk factor.5 However, assertions that behavioral factors6'7 contribute to "accident-proneness"8 9 or that family factors increase the risk of injury'0 are still open to question.…”

Knowledge of safety of high and low active-impulsive boys: Implications for child injury prevention

“…In regard to injury prevention, the most common method has been that of safety education (Pless & Arsenault, 1987), and the primary contribution of psychologists to injury prevention has been in safety-skills teaching (Jones & Kazdin, 1980;Jones, Kazdin, & Haney, 1981;Mori &Peterson, 1986;Poche, Blrouwer, & Swearingen, 198 1;Roberts & Fanurik, 1986;Yeaton & Bailey, 1978). The identification of active and impulsive children as being at special risk for injury might suggest that they lack the ability to perceive lhazards and the skills to avoid hazards.…”

Increasing the safety of children's vehicle travel: From effective risk communication to behavior change

“…However, it should be noted that most reports of interventions to decrease misuse have been government or community educational programs without a rigorous evaluation of program effectiveness. Furthermore, it's unlikely that education alone is sufficient to prevent the misuse of child safety seats (Pless & Arsenault, 1987).…”