title: Effectiveness of nurse counselling in discouraging the use of the infant walkers.
abstract: Infant walkers are widely used by caregivers in Singapore despite being recognized as a household hazard. The study determined the effectiveness of nurse counselling in dissuading caregivers from using the walker. Caregivers of children 4 months of age were recruited and divided into the intervention group (nurse's advice and illustrated pamphlets), a conventional group (questionnaire alone) and a control group (without any intervention in separate polyclinic). The percentage of the caregivers, who used the walkers in each group when their child was 9 months old, was taken as a surrogate indicator of effectiveness of nurse's intervention. The study analyzed 708 caregivers. Fewer caregivers (62.7% intervention vs. 80.4% questionnaire alone vs. 83.0% control) used the walker after nurse's advice with illustrated pamphlets. 8% of the users reported walker-related injuries (n=43). Nurses' counselling could be a simple yet effective method to discourage the use of walkers.
authors.affiliation: SingHealth Polyclinics, Pasir Ris, Singapore. Tan.Ngiap.Chuan@singhealth.com.sg
authors.forename: N C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: N M L H
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gu
mesh_terms: D000056:Accident Prevention / Q000379:methods; D017028:Caregivers / Q000193:education*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D015370:Infant Equipment / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009726:Nurses; D010174:Pamphlets; D012846:Singapore; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control