Do urban parents' interests in safety topics match their children's injury risks?
OBJECTIVE
To assess childhood injury risk and parents' injury interests, and the association between the two.


METHODS
A cross-sectional computer and telephone survey was conducted as part of a randomized controlled trial. The authors enrolled parents of children being seen at an urban pediatric primary care practice and measured selected injury knowledge, beliefs and safety practices. Parents were asked to select two of four topics of interest and recommendations regarding them were included in a computer-tailored report.


RESULTS
Participants (N = 105) were assessed as being at risk for all four areas: poisoning (88%), fires (85%), falls (55%), and car crashes (18%). Parents were interested in poisoning (81%) and car crashes (49%); their interests were unrelated to child's assessed risk.


CONCLUSIONS
Soliciting parents' interests prior to counseling may help to identify priority areas for counseling as well as dispel myths and unfounded fears regarding childhood injury risks.
McDonald
Eileen M
EM
Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Solomon
Barry S
BS
Shields
Wendy C
WC
Serwint
Janet R
JR
Wang
Mei-Cheng
MC
Gielen
Andrea C
AC
D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003658:Decision Making, Computer-Assisted; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011203:Poverty; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014481:United States; D014505:Urban Population; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000517:prevention & control*