Funded Projects

Problem:

Injuries, especially in the home, are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children younger than 6 years. This project will employ a multi-faceted, community-based approach to prevent these injuries through outreach activities aimed at pediatricians, public health agencies, and others. Goals and Objectives Goal 1: Decrease the rate of injuries among children younger than 6 years of age. Objective 1: Create and disseminate evidence-based prevention materials and messages to project partners. Objective 2: Assist project partners with dissemination of injury prevention materials and messages to families with children younger than 6 years of age.

Methodology:

This project will employ a multifaceted approach to injury prevention, centered on community partnership and collaboration, which builds upon CIPA's extensive experience and expertise in the field of child injury prevention. Project resources will be available to partners across the state, including more than 3,000 pediatricians. We estimate conservatively that more than 80,000 Ohio families with children younger than 6 years will be reached by this project. This project addresses an important health disparities issue that disproportionately affects children in low-income families, minority children, and children with special needs.

Coordination:

Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital (advisory); Central Ohio Pediatric Society (advisory); Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (advisory); Columbus Public Health (advisory); Ohio Department of Health and Title V Program (advisory)

Evaluation:

This project will be evaluated based on 1) the successful achievement of the project sub-objectives, 2) a pre- and post-intervention assessment of the knowledge, attitudes and practices of participating parents or guardians, and 3) a project evaluation tool completed by project partners at completion of the project. Project activities will be monitored based on the work plan / time line to ensure that the project is progressing on schedule.

Experience to Date:

The project coordinator has reached out to approximately 20 high reach organizations to facilitate dissemination of project materials and increase awareness of child injury and its impact. The development of a website for the project has also been ongoing. This includes conceptualization of the website, establishing what materials should be included, collating and curating materials, acquiring images and visuals for the website, and writing and editing content for the website. The website will be ready to go live by the end of June 2016. A partnership has also been established with a local health department to field test child injury prevention education outreach materials with their WIC clients. Documents on a dozen injury toolkits have been translated into Spanish. Collaboration with partners resulted in toolkits available for outreach on liquid nicotine, hot food and drink scalds, and portable pools.