Objective The Prevent Alcohol and Risk-Related Trauma in Youth (P.A.R.T.Y) program is a 1-day injury awareness and prevention program for youth ages 15 and older, with the goal to educate adolescents to recognise their injury risks and make informed choices to reduce them. This study assessed the effectiveness of the P.A.R.T.Y. program in preventing traumatic injuries during a 10 year period.

Methods P.A.R.T.Y. participants (study) were matched with a group of subjects having the same age, gender, residential area and initial year in database, who did not attend the P.A.R.T.Y. program (control). Data from two different sources were searched to determine the incidence of traumatic injuries in both groups. Statistical comparisons were made for both groups, gender, calendar year and before and after the two, and graduating driver licensing system was implemented, using the, conditional logistic regression analysis with a p<0.05 considered significant.

Results Of 3905 P.A.R.T.Y. participants, 1281 were successfully randomly matched on the above 4 variables with 1281 controls. The most frequent injury was homicide or injury by other 381/2562 (14.9%). There were fewer traumatic injuries in the study group than in the control group (43.3% vs 47.4%, p=0.02, OR=1.22, 95% CI 0.03 to 1.45). This difference was stronger in females (44.4% vs 49.0%, p=0.04), and before the graduated licensing system was implemented (60.1% vs 67.2%, p=0.04).

Conclusions The P.A.R.T.Y. program effectively reduced the incidence of traumatic injuries among its participants. This effectiveness was stronger among females, and before the driver licensing system was implemented in the province.