A Community-Based Intervention to Prevent Fall Injuries to Young Children in the Home

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.