Citation

Chaudhary S, Pomerantz WJ, Miller B, Pan A, Agarwal M. J. Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2017; 83(5S Suppl 2): S184-S189.

Affiliation

aEmory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA; bChildren's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA; cCincinnati Children's Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio; dComprehensive Children's Injury Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; eArkansas Children's Hospital; fEmory University School of Public Health.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/TA.0000000000001603

PMID

28557845

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Injury is the leading cause of death in children. Although many pediatric hospitals and trauma centers provide injury prevention (IP) programming, there is no national standard. This study aims to identify characteristics of a sustainable and successful IP program by querying programs affiliated with the Injury Free Coalition for Kids (IFCK).

METHODS: IFCK sites were sent a 30-question survey via e-mail. Questions focused on demographics, scope of IP activities, self-efficacy, and outcome measures including: finances, academic productivity, and legislative advocacy. Counts and frequencies were calculated and compared using chi-square tests.

RESULTS: The survey was completed by 38/42 sites (90.4%). The majority were associated with a freestanding children's hospital (57.9%) and level 1 pediatric trauma center (86.8%). Most programs (79%) had at least 1 dedicated full-time equivalent (FTE) staff. Research was most common on child passenger safety and teen driving. Nearly 30% of programs offered educational curricula to healthcare providers; these sites were more likely to have FTE support (p = 0.036). Steady sources of funding were identified for 60.5% of programs, with 47.8% citing their hospital as the primary source. 73.0% of respondents were confident in their program's capacity to sustain activities; these were more likely to be larger programs (p = 0.001) with steady sources of funding (p <0.001). Despite 73.7% of sites having academic affiliations, 60.5% had ≤5 publications over the previous 5 years. In the prior 2 years, 55.3% of programs impacted legislative or policy changes. Funding, size of program, and FTE had no statistical correlation with research productivity or number of legislative/policy contributions.

CONCLUSIONS: This study characterizes the variation among pediatric IP programs within IFCK sites, while highlighting the association between financial and FTE support from programs' institutions with sustainable IP programming. These results can assist programs in identifying differences in relation to their peers. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Retrospective, comparative study, level III.

Language: en