Childhood Injury Prevention Counseling in Primary Care Settings: A Critical Review of the Literature

Abstract

Objectives. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) believes that health education, through office-based counseling, can contribute to childhood injury prevention. This report presents the results of a critical review of the scientific literature on the effectiveness of primary care-based counseling to prevent childhood unintentional injury. Methods. A panel selected from the AAP Committee and the AAP Section on Injury and Poison Prevention searched the English-language scientific literature for all articles about childhood unintentional injury prevention counseling. A standardized format was developed to record data on each study. Two members of the panel independently reviewed each article. Articles that were original reports and in which unintentional injury prevention counseling took place in a primary care setting were included. Articles were encoded and analyzed by computer and then grouped by quality of evidence using the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) method of categorizing results of medical care evaluation. Articles were rated by strength of study design in order to compare studies within each USPSTF group. Results. Twenty articles met the criteria for inclusion. Of these, 18 showed positive effects of injury prevention counseling including five randomized/controlled, 10 non-randomized/controlled, two multiple time series, and one descriptive study. In 15 of the positive studies, physicians performed the counseling. Positive outcomes as measured by increased knowledge, improved behavior, or decreased injury occurrence were reported for both motor vehicle and non-motor vehicle injuries. Conclusions. The literature review supports the recommendation of the AAP to include injury prevention counseling as part of routine health supervision. This recommendation has implications for health care reimbursement and care content.

Living in an online world: Social media experiences of adolescents and young adults with cancer

“…Although our sample infrequently noted negative experiences, the bullying experienced by one of every six reveals an important opportunity for pediatric oncologists to open a dialog with their patients about their SM use and experiences. Akin to a general pediatrician offering anticipatory guidance on injury prevention, pediatric oncology clinicians can provide anticipatory guidance on using SM, aiming to augment the strengths of SM while helping patients avoid its potential dangers 50 . Unfortunately, research suggests that health care providers are not counseling on SM use, potentially due to inadequate training or feeling uncomfortable with counseling on this topic 51 .…”

Why “accidents” are not accidental: Using psychological science to understand and prevent unintentional child injuries.

“…Interdisciplinary collaboration between psychologists and other professionals will remain critical. As an example, behavioral scientists have long collaborated with primary care pediatricians to evaluate and implement counseling of parents on injury prevention strategies during well-child pediatrician visits (Bass et al, 1993; Gielen et al, 2007; Guyer et al, 1989).…”

Perception of Choking Injury Risk Among Healthcare Students

“…It can be observed from Table 4 that in almost every case, students selected the food items less often than the adult group for all age groups (e.g., question A, nuts 7% students versus 13% adults; question B, nuts 13% Given that these final year students may go on to be health professionals and possibly be responsible for educating parents and patients about choking hazards, we suggest that there is a need to introduce specific educational modules on choking injuries in health education degrees. This suggestion is because healthcare professionals can play an important role in educating and training parents about childhood injury prevention [25,26] and can also provide guidelines on appropriate food selection and safe methods of feeding [8,12]. Other avenues for educating adults can come from other interventions within wider public health strategies, as have been shown to be useful in improving child safety [27] and in reducing the incidence of choking injuries [28].…”