Home-safety devices reduce childhood injuries
Contact:
Bruce, Lanphear, 778.782.8650; blanphear@sfu.ca, Bruce.Lanphear@cchmc.org
Carol Thorbes, PAMR, 778.782.3035; cthorbes@sfu.ca
Simon Fraser University researcher Bruce Lanphear says Canadian policymakers and health agencies should review the findings of the first study internationally to quantify the effectiveness of home safety devices to safeguard children.
The Faculty of Health Sciences professor of children’s health was a co-investigator on A Randomized Controlled Trial of Home Injury Hazard Reduction, published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine (April 2011).
The two-year study in Cincinnati, OH looked at how young children in more than 300 homes with safety devices fared compared to those in homes without the devices. They included stairway gates, cabinet locks, electrical outlet covers, safety storage for sharp objects such as knives and hot water heaters set below 48 degrees Celsius (120 F).
Along with Lanphear, five researchers at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre, including the lead investigator Doctor Kieran J. Phelan, studied the impact of installing and maintaining the devices. Their efficacy was studied during the first two years of a baby’s life.
The researchers found children in the equipped homes experienced 70 per cent fewer preventable injuries. The rate of all housing-related injuries dropped by 30 per cent.
“The results of this study are important because injuries are the leading cause of morbidity, mortality and disability in Canada and other developed countries,” explains Lanphear.
“Injuries that occur in the home are the most common and preventable injuries. Cuts, bruises, burns, poisonings or falls are not usually severe or fatal, but falling down stairs or out of an open window can result in serious injuries or death. Ingestions, fires or poisonings occur frequently and can be serious or fatal.”
This is the first study of home-safety device efficacy to go so far as installing, maintaining and evaluating their injury reduction. Previous studies typically only provided families with educational literature.
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Backgrounder: Canadian significance of study
“The rates in this American-based study may not be the same in Canada,” notes Bruce Lanphear, an SFU co-investigator on the new home-device safety study. “But the fact that preventable home-base childhood injuries are the leading cause of hospital emergencies exists on both sides of the border,” notes Bruce Lanphear.”
“Based on these and other findings, we should survey housing in Canada to ensure that families with young children have home safety devices. If not, health agencies could launch community projects in which homes with newborns are randomly selected for installation of safety devices whose effectiveness is evaluated.”
The Cincinnati researchers are now expanding their newly completed study to include a larger, higher-risk group of participants. It will study low-income, first-time mothers whose children are considered to be at greater risk than those in more well to do families.
“The home environment is the most common location of injury for younger children,” says the study’s lead investigator, Doctor Kieran J. Phelan at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre.
“However, parents may not have the time, training or resources to obtain and install the best safety products. Considering the millions of trips to the emergency room and doctor’s office each year for injuries in children, our data show that a tremendous amount of pain and suffering could be avoided and millions of dollars in healthcare costs saved if a standard set of home safety measurers were implemented on a broad scale.”
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