Citation

Chavez AA, Duzinski SV, Wheeler TC, Lawson KA. Burns 2014; 40(6): 1172-1178.

Affiliation

Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas, Trauma Services, 4900 Mueller Blvd, Austin, TX 78723, USA. Electronic address: kalawson@seton.org.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.burns.2013.12.006

PMID

24411068

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of the Danger Rangers Fire Safety Curriculum in increasing the fire safety knowledge of low-income, minority children in an urban community setting. METHODS: Data was collected from child participants via teacher/researcher administered pre-, post-, and retention tests. A self-administered questionnaire was collected from parents pre- and post-intervention to assess fire/burn prevention practices. Paired t-tests were conducted to compare pre-, post-, and retention test mean scores by grade group. McNemar's test was used to determine if there was a change in parent-reported prevention practices following the intervention. RESULTS: The first/second grade group and the third grade group scored significantly higher on the post- and retention test as compared to the pre-test (p<0.0001 for all comparisons). There was no significant change in scores for the pre-k/k group after the intervention. There was a significant increase in 2 of 4 parent-reported fire/burn-related prevention practices after the intervention. CONCLUSION: Fire safety knowledge improved among first to third grade children, but not among pre-kinder and kindergarten children who participated in the intervention. This study also showed that a program targeted towards children and delivered in a classroom setting has the potential to influence familial prevention practices by proxy.

Language: en