Grant: Operating Grant

Falls are the leading cause of injury hospitalizations for young children in Canada. Although we now know the primary causes of these falls, very little has been done to identify ways to prevent such falls. The proposed research represents a unique collaboration between child-injury prevention researchers and public health units and aims to address this important child health issue. In this research we will compare the impact of two community-based interventions in an effort to identify 'best practices' for preventing falls to young children (1-4 years) in the home. Drawing on findings from systematic reviews on effective child-injury prevention approaches,one intervention approach focuses on social marketing using the media and the other adds two additional components that more directly target parent behaviors relevant to fall prevention in the home. Comparing pre-intervention with post-intervention incidence of falls will reveal the relative success of each intervention approach. In addition, we will assess for changes in parents' awareness of fall injuries, knowledge of fall risks, attitudes towards prevention, and fall-prevention practices to determine which are the key factors that predict any resulting reduction in the incidence of falls. The findings from this research will provide important information on ways that communities can take action to prevent falls in the home to young children.