BOSTON — Using computer kiosks in the emergency department to provide information on car seat use, smoke alarms, and proper poison storage may help to improve safety and save physicians time, Andrea C. Gielen, D.Sc., said at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association.
Approximately 12 million preschoolers visit the emergency department each year, and computer technology provides an opportunity to offer a brief intervention, said Dr. Gielen, professor and director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore.
“The potential for a teachable moment may really exist, but it's been largely unexplored,” she said.
In a test of the technology, Dr. Gielen and her colleagues evaluated the feasibility of using a computer kiosk in the pediatric emergency department to improve parents' knowledge about common safety issues.
The researchers randomized 901 families with a child under age 6 who presented in the emergency department into either an intervention or a control group. As part of the intervention, parents used the computer program to complete a 12-minute assessment that collected information on their current knowledge and attitudes about car seats, smoke alarms, and poison storage. The parents then received a four-page report personalized with their child's name that detailed customized safety messages tailored to their responses.
For example, parents without a car seat would receive materials that focused on the need to have a car seat. However, for those parents who already have a car seat, the materials might focus on having the correct seat for the age and weight of the child or on the need to use the seat consistently.
Families in the control group also completed a 12-minute assessment using the computer kiosk and received a personalized report, but the report focused on general child health topics and did not touch on safety issues.
After 2 weeks, 98% of parents in the intervention group remembered the report, 93% read some of the report, 57% read the entire report, and 68% discussed the report with family and friends. About 39% of parents in the intervention group said that they read the entire report and discussed it with others.
When the researchers compared the 39% of the intervention group who had both read and discussed the report with families in the control group, the families who were highly exposed to the intervention materials were significantly more likely to be practicing recommended safety behaviors.
Those families in the intervention group who read the entire report and discussed it with others also were more likely to have higher incomes, highlighting the need to give special attention to the needs of low-income families, Dr. Gielen said.
Overall, the program was well received in the pediatric emergency department and parents liked it, she said.
“We think that this technology does in fact offer a lot of promise for injury prevention in the pediatric emergency department.”
The kiosks have safety information for preschoolers' parents on car seat use, smoke alarms, and proper poison storage, said Dr. Andrea C. Gielen. Vivian E. Lee/Elsevier Global Medical News