title: Enhancing fire department home visiting programs: results of a community intervention trial.
abstract: This study evaluates the impact of an enhanced fire department home visiting program on community participation and installation of smoke alarms, and describes the rate of fire and burn hazards observed in homes. Communities were randomly assigned to receive either a standard or enhanced home visiting program. Before implementing the program, 603 household surveys were completed to determine comparability between the communities. During a 1-year intervention period, 171 home visits took place with 8080 homes. At baseline, 60% of homes did not have working smoke alarms on every level, 44% had unsafe water temperatures, and 72% did not have carbon monoxide alarms. Residents in the enhanced community relative to those in the standard community were significantly more likely to let the fire fighters into their homes (75 vs 62%). Among entered homes, those in the enhanced community were significantly more likely to agree to have smoke alarms installed (95 vs 92%), to be left with a working smoke alarm on every level of the home (84 vs 78%), and to have more smoke alarms installed per home visited (1.89 vs 1.74). The high baseline rates of home hazards suggest that fire department home visiting programs should take an "all hazards" approach. Community health workers and community partnerships can be effective in promoting fire departments' fire and life safety goals. Public health academic centers should partner with the fire service to help generate evidence on program effectiveness that can inform decision making about resource allocation for prevention.
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
authors.forename: Andrea C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Gielen
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shields
authors.forename: Shannon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Frattaroli
authors.forename: Eileen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.forename: Vanya
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bishai
authors.forename: Raymond
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: O'Brocki
authors.forename: Elise C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Perry
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bates-Hopkins
authors.forename: Pat
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tracey
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Parsons
mesh_terms: D015142:Baltimore; D002056:Burns / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003256:Community Participation; D054626:Consumer Health Information; D061388:Firefighters; D005390:Fires; D006358:Hot Temperature / Q000009:adverse effects; D006798:Housing; D006801:Humans; D012449:Safety; D015208:Smoke Inhalation Injury / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014881:Water Supply