Effectiveness of safety precaution intervention regarding use of fire crackers on knowledge and fire accidents among school children

Abstract

Diwali is one such joyous festival which is loved and celebrated by everyone over the country as the festival of lights. It is celebrated by lighting oil lamps and firecrackers like a bomb, flowerpots, chakri, rockets, etc. Firecracker injuries are common in India, of which the majority takes place during diwali. A quasi experimental study was done to assess the effectiveness of safety precaution intervention regarding use of fire crackers on knowledge and fire accidents among school children at Government Middle school, Tiruvannamalai.110 subjects in experimental & 110 subjects in control group were selected by using convenience sampling technique. Post test only design was used. Knowledge and fire accidents were assessed by using questionnaire and observational checklist respectively. The study findings revealed that in control group, the mean posttest score for knowledge was 9.2 whereas in experimental group, the mean score was 18.1 and the calculated t value is 8.5 shows statistically significant at P<0.001 level.The mean score for fire accidents in control group is 4.19 whereas in experimental group mean score was 2.8 and the calculated unpaired t value t=5.5 shows statistically significant at P<0.001 level. The study concluded that safety precaution intervention is necessary to create awareness and control the fire crackers injuries among school children and they are also the message carrier.