Background: Over 9,000 children die from various causes of unintentional injury, 8.7 million are treated in the Emergency Department, and 225,000 require hospitalization annually. This paper examines data from the Safe N’ Sound (SNS) program that illustrates care giver perceptions of threats to children’s safety in comparison to trauma data collected at a Midwestern Pediatric Level I Trauma Center and from regional department of health data.
Methods: Missouri Information for Community Assessment (MICA) was categorized to mirror variables corresponding with injury risks presented in the SNS program. Level I Trauma Center data was examined to determine how the variables were distributed in comparison to MICA data and to the parent reported level. Chi-square was used to analyze the relationship between demographic variables and scale risk categories. Binary logistic regression was conducted to determine which parental control variables predicted which risk.
Results: A total of 496 SNS surveys were compared to SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center and MICA data. Children of parents who perceived child as part of growing up had greater odds for injury than those whose parents disagreed with injury as a natural course of childhood.
Conclusions: Parental perception is significant for SNS and other tailored injury prevention programs because it may help inform the development of the tailored information presented to the parents. Understanding the parental perceptions specific to injury risks allows for more detailed tailoring of information based upon what parents believe about preventative injury behaviors. In addition to testimonials and storylines, parental beliefs may be another way to target potential risks for pediatric injury.
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