FEATURED PROGRAMMES

An evaluation of the effectiveness of the Injury Minimization Programme for Schools (IMPS)

Katrina Frederick, Elizabeth Bixby, Marie-Noelle Orzel, Sarah Stewart-Brown and Keith Willett

John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Katrina Frederick, Room 4, Manor House, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headley Way, Headington, Oxford OX3 9DU, UK
(e-mail: kate.frederick{at}orh.anglox.nhs.uk)

Objective—To evaluate the effect of an injury prevention programme (Injury Minimization Programme for Schools, IMPS) on children's primary and secondary prevention, and basic life support, knowledge, attitudes, skills, and behaviour.

Design—Prospective non-randomised matched control.

Setting—Radcliffe NHS Trust and primary and middle schools in Oxfordshire, UK.

Subjects—1200 year 6 children (10 and 11 years old); 600 received IMPS, a primary and secondary injury prevention programme taught in the school and hospital environments; 600 children in the control group received no planned intervention.

Main outcome measures—Safety knowledge, measured using a quiz. Resuscitation skills and behaviour observed and assessed using a simulated emergency scenario. Attitude and hypothetical behaviour towards safety assessed by the "draw and write" technique.

Results—Before intervention, both groups had similar levels of knowledge. Five months after the intervention, significantly more IMPS trained children demonstrated a greater increase in knowledge in administering first aid and the correct procedure for making a call to the emergency services. They also demonstrated better basic life support techniques—for example, mouth-to-mouth and cardiac compressions. They identified more subtle dangers, were more likely to seek help, and tell others that their behaviour was dangerous.

Conclusion—The results demonstrate the benefits of the IMPS programme on injury prevention knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours.

Keywords: behaviour; didactic and experiential learning; controlled study; school programme

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Maconochie, I., Simpson, S., Bingham, B. (2007). Teaching children basic life support skills. BMJ 334: 1174-1174 [Full Text]  
• Kendrick, D., Groom, L., Stewart, J., Watson, M., Mulvaney, C., Casterton, R. (2007). "Risk Watch": Cluster randomised controlled trial evaluating an injury prevention program. Inj. Prev. 13: 93-99 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Lamb, R, Joshi, M S, Carter, W, Cowburn, G, Matthews, A (2006). Children's acquisition and retention of safety skills: the Lifeskills program.. Inj. Prev. 12: 161-165 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Frederick, K., Barlow, J. (2006). The Citizenship Safety Project: a pilot study. Health Educ Res 21: 87-96 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Abernethy, L, MacAuley, D, McNally, O, McCann, S (2003). Immediate care of school sport injury. Inj. Prev. 9: 270-273 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Maconochie, I (2003). Accident prevention. Arch. Dis. Child. 88: 275-277 [Full Text]