Domestic fire emergency escape plans among the aged in NSW, Australia: the impact of a fire safety home visit program

Abstract

Background Domestic fire-related injuries and deaths among the aged remain a concern of many countries including Australia. This study aimed to assess the impact of a home fire safety visit project on domestic fire emergency escape plans among the 373 aged persons using multivariate analyses. Method The study used data from a collaborative intervention program by three emergency agencies in New South Wales. It covered 373 older people at registration and 156 at post home visit follow-up. The five fire emergency escape plan outcome measures (participants having a working smoke alarm, finding out what to do if there was a fire at their home, making a plan to escape their home in the event of a fire, finding out how to escape their home in an emergency and finding out how to maintain their installed smoke alarm) were examined by adjusting for key characteristics of participants, using a generalized estimating equation (GEE) model that adjusted for repeated measures in order to examine the association between the home visit program and fire emergency escape plans. Results There were significant improvements in participants’ likelihood of finding out what to do if there was a fire in their home [AOR; 95% CI 1.89 (1.59–2.26)], making a plan to escape their home [AOR; 95% CI 1.80 (1.50–2.17)], how to escape their home in an emergency [AOR; 95% CI 1.33 (1.07–1.66)] and how to maintain their smoke alarm [AOR; 95% CI 1.77 (1.48–2.12)]. Female participants were less likely to have a plan to escape their home in the event of a fire [AOR; 95% CI 0.86 (0.75–0.99)] and to find out how to escape their home in an emergency [AOR; 95% CI 0.71 (0.61–0.82)] compared with their male counterparts. Additionally, participants who spoke languages other than English at home were significantly less likely to have a working smoke alarm [AOR; 95% CI 0.88 (0.38–0.69)]. Conclusion Our findings suggest that home visit programs are able to increase fire safety of vulnerable and isolated older people.

Household Fire Protection Practices in Relation to Socio-demographic Characteristics: Evidence from a Swedish National Survey

“…The results show clearly that, in Sweden, considerable differences exist in household fire protection practices between different socio-demographic groups. These results are consistent with previous studies that have found a significantly lower use of preventative measures or practices amongst ethnic minority families [27,28,45,46], single-households and low income families [29], individuals with a lower educational level [47,48] as well as those living in socially deprived areas [49,50], thereby indicating that the level of protection is a highly plausible cause of the socio-demographic differentiation in fire-related mortality.…”

A Study of Differences in the Perceived Risk of Attaining a Residential Fire Injury

“…Regardless, with such similarities between risk perception and actual risk, there are important and interesting ramifications from a prevention perspective. Previous studies have found a significantly lower use of preventative measures or practices amongst ethnic minority families [46][47][48][49], single-households and low income families [50], individuals with a lower educational level [51,52] as well as those living in socially deprived areas [53,54], i.e. background factors that are similar to the groups found in this study to have a higher risk perception.…”

Comparison of causes, characteristics and consequences of residential fires in social and non-social housing dwellings in New South Wales, Australia

“…This may mean that fires that had elderly involved were less sever and extinguished before causing serious damage, death or injuries. In addition, it may also suggest that home safety programs delivered specifically for the elderly, such as the SABRE (Smoke Alarm Battery Replacement for the Elderly), has been functional ( Tannous and Agho, 2019 ). As shown in Table 4 , age category for almost 20% of the individuals who used residential fire-related health services was undetermined and therefore, our result may be affected by the missing data.…”