Abstract
BackgroundA Mobile Safety Center (MSC) is designed to remove financial accessibility barriers to home safety by providing education and safety devices within local communities. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of an MSC on pediatric home safety knowledge and device use.MethodsWe conducted a prospective home safety interventional study. Parents and grandparents with children at home were recruited at community events attended by the MSC. Participants completed a pre-test survey assessing demographics and current home safety knowledge, practices, and device use. Participants then attended the MSC’s short home safety educational program. Afterwards, participants completed a knowledge reassessment post-test and were offered free safety devices: a smoke detector, a gun lock, and a childproofing kit comprising outlet covers, doorknob covers, and cabinet latches. We administered two follow-up surveys four weeks and six months after visiting the MSC. Descriptive statistics, Friedman tests, Wilcoxon Sum-Rank tests, and Pearson Chi-Square were used to assess respondent demographic characteristics and changes in home safety knowledge, practices, and device use.ResultsWe recruited 50 participants, of whom 29 (58%) completed follow-up 1, 30 (60%) completed follow-up 2, and 26 (52%) completed both. Participants who completed both follow-ups increased total correct answers to safety knowledge questions between the pre-test and post-test (p = 0.005), pre-test and follow-up 1 (p = 0.003), and pre-test and follow-up 2 (p = 0.012) with no significant changes between the post-test, follow-up 1, and follow-up 2. Of the respondents who reported accepting safety products, outlet covers were used most frequently, followed by the smoke detector, doorknob covers, cabinet latches, and the gun lock.ConclusionsThe MSC may be an effective means of increasing home safety among families with children, as participation in the MSC’s home safety educational program significantly increased home safety knowledge and spurred home safety device use. Implementation of MSCs could potentially reduce childhood injury rates within communities through promotion of home safety.
Highlights
A Mobile Safety Center (MSC) is designed to remove financial accessibility barriers to home safety by providing education and safety devices within local communities
We investigated whether an MSC could increase home safety knowledge and device use
Our study examined the use of an MSC as a tool for increasing home safety knowledge and device use, among low-socioeconomic status (SES) populations
Summary
A Mobile Safety Center (MSC) is designed to remove financial accessibility barriers to home safety by providing education and safety devices within local communities. Facilitators include provision of simple, durable safety devices; ability of parents to predict injury risk; community involvement; face-to-face education; and using methods tailored to each family’s needs (Smithson et al, 2011; Ablewhite et al, 2015; Ingram et al, 2012; Kendrick et al, 2013). Many of these barriers and facilitators could be addressed by a safety center with a comprehensive injury prevention program. The SAFE Home Project, or “SAFE trial,” found personalized safety counseling and access to reduced-cost devices at a safety center were effective at improving home safety practices (Gielen et al, 2002)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
