title: On the road with injury prevention--an analysis of the efficacy of a mobile injury prevention exhibit.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To assess the effectiveness of a mobile injury prevention vehicle (mobile safety street [MSS]) with a hands-on curriculum on instruction and retention of safety knowledge compared with traditional classroom safety curriculum among grade 5 elementary school children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Grade 5 students (n = 1,692) were asked to participate in the study as either the intervention group (MSS experience) or the comparison group (traditional classroom safety curriculum). Each student in the intervention group was asked to complete a series of three surveys. The first survey was given before the MSS visit (Fall 2009), the second immediately following the MSS visit (Fall 2009), and a third given 6 months after the MSS visit (Spring 2010) to measure knowledge retention. Students in the comparison group were asked to complete two surveys. The first survey was given at the same time as the intervention group (Fall 2009) and the second was given after the completion of the traditional classroom safety curriculum (Spring 2010).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Students scored on average 5.67 of 10 (5.56-5.80) before any safety instruction was given. After MSS instruction, mean scores showed a significant increase to 7.43 of 10 (7.16-7.71). Such increase was still measurable 6 months after the intervention 7.34 (7.04-7.66). The comparison group saw a significant increase in their mean scores 6.48 (6.10-6.89), but the increase was much smaller than the intervention group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Community-based injury prevention programs are essential to reducing preventable injury and deaths from trauma. This study demonstrates that a hands-on program is more effective than traditional methods for providing safety knowledge.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine/Department of Pediatrics, UMassMemorial Children's Medical Center, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. mannom@gmail.com
authors.forename: Mariann
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manno
authors.forename: Allison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rook
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yano-Litwin
authors.forename: Louise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Maranda
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Burr
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hirsh
mesh_terms: D000056:Accident Prevention / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003479:Curriculum; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012574:Schools; D013334:Students; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control*