The need to demonstrate the reliability and validity of measurement instruments used in health promotion evaluation is becoming more important. This may be daunting for busy health professionals with multiple responsibilities. This paper endeavours to demystify the process of assessing reliability and validity and provide a simple step by step guide that can be followed to contruct measurement scales.

This paper discusses briefly the epidemiologocal picture of injuries to cyclists and results of some studies into the effectiveness of cycle helmets as one of a series of measures to reduce the severity of injuries to cyclists.

Fires and burns are leading causes of unintentional injury and death of children in the United States, claiming the lives of approximately 800 children under the age of fifteen annually and injuring thousands more. Each year, 150,000 children are burned in America. Compelled by the great risk to children from fire and burn-related injuries and deaths, Kids in Danger undertook this report to examine children's product related fire and burn hazards from June 1992 to 2002. Children's products recalled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for fire, burn and electric shock hazards pose a sizeable risk to children. Since June 992, 42 recalls have been issued for these hazards, accounting for over 16 million individual units. products were recalled for different reasons including battery failure, overheating, improper labeling, electrical wiring defects and flammability. Other findings of this report include: -Electrical wiring defects led to the highest failure rate with 537 reported failures for 6 recalls. Overheating or melting followed at 324 failures for 11 recalls and battery defects at 44 failures for 2 recalls. -Forty-eight percent of children's products recalled for fire, burn or electric shock hazards were toys. Clothing followed at 33%, nursery products at 14% and furniture at 5%. -The largest recall was for 10 million Power Wheels battery powered ride-on vehicles from Fisher-Price. Four other juvenile product manufacturers issued recalls of over 500,000 units each. -Sixty-five burn injuries were reported from these recalled products. One fatality was reported in a fire started by a Gerry Baby Products Deluxe Baby Monitor, Model 602. -Thirty-six percent of recalled products violated the federal 'Flammable Fabrics Act'. Based on this analysis, Kids in danger recommends that: -Juvenile product manufacturers take more proactive measures in the recall process by working with the CPSC to inform consumers about defective products and tracking effectiveness of this process. -Children's products be required to certify that they were manufactured to meet existing mandatory standards. -Manufacturers take responsibility to design and adequately test their products before they are in the hands of consumers. Kids in Danger is a nonprofit organisation dedicated to protecting children by improving children's product safety. This report is based on public information about recalls released by the CPSC.

This study examines gender and age differences in maternal reports of injuries in a cross sectional group of children aged 0-11 years. The cause, nature, body part injured, and location of injury are explored, as are the associations with family socioeconomic indicators and associations with limitations in activities. In addition, we report patterns of health care use for injured and non-injured children by examining contacts with a variety of medical health care professionals by child age group and gender. Data for 22,831 children and their families were used from cycle 1 of the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY) collected in 1995. Descriptive analyses and chi-squared tests for trends were used to examine injury variations by child gender and age. Logistic regressions were used to examine the relationship between socioeconomic indicators and injury, and associations between injury and limitations in activities. Descriptive statistics and logistic regressions were used to examine the relationship between injury status and contact with various health care professionals. Linear regressions were also used to examine associations between injury status and average number of health care contacts. Results showed that, consistent with findings based on hospital data, boys experience more injuries than girls and injuries increase with age of child. Falls are the most common sources of maternally reported injuries followed by environmental hazards for young children and sports injuries for school aged children. The majority of injuries occur in or around the home for young children and at school for older children. For maternal reports of non-severe injures, single marital status is a risk factor for boys. In addition, maternal reported childhood injuries are associated with increased use of health care services by various health care professionals and overnight hospitalizations. This pattern is consistent for infants and toddlers, preschoolers and school aged children, and remains consistent across both genders. In conclusion, maternally reported injuries occur in 10% of Canadian children and many of these result in limitations of activities. Preventive strategies should take both child age and child gender into consideration. Children who suffer from injuries are more likely to have contacts and more numerous visits with a variety of health care professionals as well as overnight hospitalizations. These results demonstrate the importance of examining injuries treated at home or those that are untreated in addition to injuries treated in hospitals and emergency rooms.

A state-wide surveillance of playground injuries in Ontario found that the type and depth of surfaces under and around playgrounds, and the provision of guardrails and handrails ranked as the characteristics most strongly associated with playground injuries. Injuries were more common on school playgrounds than those owned by municipalities, reflecting probably the higher use of school playgrounds and the higher reporting of injury occurrence. No correlation with socio-economic factors was seen.

A case controlled study in which 235 patients with head injuries received while bicycling who sought emergency care at hospitals. The conclusion was that bicycle safety helmets are highly effective in preventing head injury. Helmets are particularly important for children, since they suffer the majority of serious head injuries from bicycling accidents.

This is a PowerPoint presentation prepared by staff at Safekids which reflects on the usefulness of the Spectrum of Prevention action model for injury prevention using the promotion of child restraints and their correct usage as a case study example.

This paper outlines the New Zealand experience in using health goals and examines its strength and weaknesses from an 'insider's' perspective. It reports on a review of the New Zealand health goals framework conducted in 1996-97. The review centred on a discussion document, written submissions on it and consultation meetings with the public, the public health sector and relevant government agencies. The article concludes that the current healthgoals framework has the potential to frame future public health action in New Zealand, but that the increasing mainstreaming of the public health function poses some risk.

In order to assess the relationship of the risk of injury requiring hospital attendance in children riding bicycles to sociodemographic factors and to measures of exposure, a population-based case-control study was undertaken in a large area of suburban Melbourne, Australia. Particular attention is given to the measurement of individual exposure in several dimensions. Analysis of data from 109 cases and 118 controls shows that 51% of injuries occurred while the child was playing rather than making a trip on the bicycle and only 22% involved another vehicle. Boys used bicycles more commonly than girls but there was minimal evidence of an increased risk in boys, adjusting for exposure. There was no evidence for an age trend in injury risk, but children from families in the lowest income category were at significantly increased risk. Exposure measures showed complex patterns of association with injury risk. Estimated time spent riding was more closely associated with risk than distance travelled. Riding more than 5 km on the sidewalk was also associated with increased risk. The elevated risk associated with sidewalk riding may be due to difficulties in negotiating uneven surfaces. The case-control study provides an ideal design for this type of investigation but valid and reliable measurement of exposure is difficult.

The data suggests that the child's personality and behavior are weaker risk factors for pedestrians and bicyclist injuries than are family and neighborhood characteristics.

This article was first presented to an international conference on 'the vulnerable road' user and describes Canadian child pedestrian deaths and injuries. It concludes: "... to be effective, prevention must include different kinds of measures directed toward environmental improvements and individual measures of assistance. Protected crosswalks need to be looked at. Is the time allowed for crossing enough? How conflictual is the fact that vehicle traffic flow is allowed to turn on a green arrow? ... The socio-economically underprivileged have a higher propensity for pedestrian accidents among children. Certain strategies to alleviate this tendency can be envisaged: these would include programmes of supervision that might be provided as auxiliary services in low-income areas." This article is referred to in the Safekids 2011 child pedestrian injury factsheet.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between sleep and wakefulness duration and childhood unintentional injury. Two hundred ninety-two injured children who presented at the Children’s Emergency Center of Udine, Italy, or their parents were interviewed after a structured questionnaire. Information was collected concerning sociodemographic variables, participant’s habits, and injury characteristics, including a brief description of the accident dynamics. Sleep or wakefulness status of the child was assessed retrospectively for each of the 48 hours before injury. For each child, we compared the 24 hours immediately before the injury (hours 1–24; case period) with hours 25 to 48 (control period). Nonparametric tests were conducted to compare the difference of sleep duration between case and control periods. In addition, we conducted intrapersonal conditional logistic regression analyses and estimated relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results showed that overall, more children had longer hours of sleep during the control period than during the case period. However, this difference was significant for boys only. A direct association between injury risk and sleeping <10 hours was found among boys but not among girls. This association was particularly strong among boys attending nursery school. We also found a direct association between injury occurring between 4 PM and midnight, and being awake for at least 8 hours before injury occurred. In conclusion, our findings show that inadequate sleep duration and lack of daytime naps are transient exposures that may increase the risk of injury among children. These results suggest new prospects for injury prevention in childhood.

This statistical chartbook presents an adaptation of the New Zealand Injury Prevention Strategy (NZIPS) serious injury outcome indicators. This report from the New Zealand Injury Prevention Strategy Secretariat, Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) covers the period 1994 - 2005.

This statistical chartbook presents an adaptation of the New Zealand Injury Prevention Strategy (NZIPS) serious injury indicators for four priority areas for children (0-14). This report from the New Zealand Injury Prevention Strategy Secretariat, Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) covers the period 1994 - 2005.

This publication is the first chartbook report to measure the rate of serious non-fatal and fatal injuries amongst the Maori population. It was completed by the Injury Prevention Research Unit, Otago University and published by the NZIPS Secretariat in June 2007. The chartbook includes ‘proposed’ and the ‘provisional’ injury outcome indicators for all injuries and selected indicators for the priority areas, for the period 1996 to 2005. The indicators are based on NZHIS Hospitalisation and Mortality data.

This statistical chartbook presents an adaptation of the New Zealand Injury Prevention Strategy (NZIPS) serious injury indicators for four priority areas for children (0-14). This report from the New Zealand Injury Prevention Strategy Secretariat, Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) covers the period 1994 - 2004 which means it covers the period immediately before the launch of NZIPS in October 2003 which will enable progress in serious childhood injury prevention to be tracked against these statistical 'baselines'.

This chartbook presents statistics relating to the New Zealand Injury Prevention Strategy (NZIPS) serious injury indicators for all New Zealanders (including adults and children). This report from the New Zealand Injury Prevention Strategy Secretariat, Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) covers the period 1994 - 2004 which means it covers the period immediately before the launch of NZIPS in October 200 which will enable progress in serious injury prevention to be tracked against these statistical 'baselines'.

This publication is one of a number prodcued by the Child Accident Prevention Trust and intended to be of use to people working on child safety issues at a local level. This booklet provides those working on local CAP initiatives with a quick checklist of the important question that need to be answered, if work is to move forward smoothly and successfully. It is divided under the following headings: Setting up your group. Running your group. Atitudes and approaches. Getting information. Agreeing a programme of work. Reviewing and evaluating. A 10 point action plan.

the aim of the study was to develop a road safety education resource which takes into account the ways in which children aged 8-11 years see the road traffic environment, and to encourage them to be part of the decision making process in keeping themselves safe

This paper highlights the recommendations from a Paediatric Society of New Zealand Position Paper for the correct use of child restraints. The authors consider that the New Zealand Government has a "tepid commitment" to promoting child passenger safety and call for further change to legislation and practice. They advocate that all health professionals use the Paediatric Society recommendations to advocate for such change. The first recommendation: "A child restraint is used on every trip for every child. Child passengers travelling in motorised vehicles should at all times be seated in a restraint that is correctly fitted into the vehicle, meets accepted Standards, and is suitable for the child's age, height, weight and development."

This booklet helps people to identify the major risks to under five-year-olds around the home and suggests how to reduce these risks.

This article considers the incorrect use of child restraints and the effect of this on child injury rates from motor vehicle crashes. Although parents are often to blame for installing car seats incorrectly, when one considers that no two children are the same, that very few cars are the same in design (ie. make, model, year) and that there are more than 100 different models of car seat available it is no wonder there are problems for parents associated with correct car seat use. The most common error seems to be in fitting the seat to the car. An international standard (ISOFIX) has been developed and adopted by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This new child seat system minimizes the challenge of properly fastening the seat to the car.

BACKGROUND: Winter activities offer children and adolescents an outdoor recreational opportunity during the coldest months. Our objectives were to estimate the national incidence of facial injury associated with recreational winter activities. Furthermore, we analyze demographic trends and clinical characteristics of patients presenting to emergency departments (EDs). METHODS: The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), a population-based resource, was evaluated for ED visits from 2010 to 2014 for children injured from "active" winter -undertakings (snowboarding, skiing, ice skating) and sledding/tubing. Entry narratives were evaluated for demographics, diagnoses, and other clinical factors. RESULTS: 841 entries amounting to an estimated 27,618 patients were evaluated. The most common injuries were lacerations (69.4%), contusions/abrasions (19.5%), and fractures (5.5%), with the most common fracture sites being the nose (60.9%), orbit (15.2%), and mandible (10.9%). Median age was 9 years (IQR 5-12), and 65.8% were male. A greater proportion of adolescents sustained fractures than younger children (8.1% vs. 4.0%). The majority of fractures were to the nose. CONCLUSION: With nearly 30,000 ED visits over five years, participation in winter sports can be perilous. Adolescents harbor a greater risk of sustaining serious injuries than younger children, and patients injured sledding/tubing had a greater fracture risk compared to those participating in more "active" winter activities. As upper/mid-face fractures occurred in only 1.4%, these findings reinforce a very limited role for CT. These findings suggest a need for greater use of facial protection and closer supervision of older children participating in these activities.

Paper looks at electrical burns and their treatment in a hospital in china

The purpose of this code of practice is to establish reasonable safety and health protection requirements to eliminate or reduce hazards in respect to the design, installation and use of flying foxes.

Site selection for bicycle helmet use was found to be more efficient when members of the community were asked to identify locations frequented by young cyclists.

The evaluation and description of a programme designed to reduce thermal injuries in the home to children under 5 which was trialed with 7 groups of caregivers. The programme was pictorially based and delivered by community educators in the first language of the participants. Selected participants were interviewed 3 months after the sessions about safety changes they had made in their homes. The results were very encouraging of this model of community education.

An analysis is made of reported motor accidents involving injury over a period of four years in two selected residential areas of Auckland, one of which (Otara) is a Government developed area and the other (Glenfield) is a privately developed area. The accident pattern for these areas is compared with that for all urban areas of New Zealand. The main feature of the analysis is that a significantly larger proportion of pedestrian accidents is found to occur in the Government developed area than in either the privately developed area or national urban areas and the ages of injured pedestrians are found to be significantly younger in the Government developed area. Some comments are made on the implications of these findings.

This report provides a comprehensive state listing of sex- and age-specific ATV-related fatality rates, 1990-1999. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates an average of 267 ATV-related deaths per annum on average since 1995. This brief article makes a comparison between ATV-related death rates between states in the USA. It also makes a cross-comparison of state requirements in terms of safety legislation for ATV use and death rates. ATV safety requirements, in terms of legislation, can be viewed as three mutually exclusive groups: (1) helmet and other safety equipment requirements (21 states), (2) machine-related safety but no helmet requirements (23 states), and (3) no safety legislation (6 states). Data showed that states without safety legislation had a collective death rate twice that of the other 2 groups. It is concluded that states with some level of safety legislation, be it mandated helmet use or machine-related requirements, have substantially fewer deaths and lower fatality rates than do states that have no ATV safety laws.

Although a quality preschool supports young children's health and safety, 'quality' has been defined diversely enough that its delivery has been varied among kindergarten teachers. The current study was the first to examine and compare perceptions of school safety between urban and rural kindergarten teachers. Sixty-seven Hong Kong teachers (from an urban region of China) and 111 Yunnan teachers (from a rural region of China) rated their perceived knowledge and attitudes regarding child safety and perceived school safety for young children. The results showed that although Yunnan teachers rated their schools' safety less favourably than did Hong Kong teachers, they rated themselves as having better knowledge and stronger attitudes about child safety. Hong Kong teachers' age and total teaching experience and Yunnan teachers' perceived knowledge significantly predicted their perceived school safety for young children. The implications for 'quality' as a multi-level construct in relation to quality teacher education are discussed.

Clearly defines consumer's right and how to uphold them. Uses cartoon illustrations.

A controlled field trial was conducted to determine the effectiveness of Mr Yuk labels as a poison prevention aid for children aged 2 to 3 years. Results of the study do not support the view that simply supplying Mr Yuk stickers to families with young children reduces risks of accidental poisoning . However, the method may be effective with older children or as an adjunct to an integrated poisoning prevention campaign.

The Rockland County Child Injury Prevention Project was designed to test the effect of public health education for parents on the injury rate of children. This "Injury classic" study found that incidence of medically attended injuries in the children was not reduced during nor after the education programme.

Legislation requiring bicyclists to wear helmets in Israel will, over a helmet's 5-year duration save approximately 57 lives and result in approximately 2544 few hospitalizations... Total benefits ($60.7 million) from reductions in health service use ($44.2 million), work absences ($7.5million) land mortality ($8.9million) would exceed program costs ($20.1million) resulting in a benfit-cost ratio of 3.01:1.

The objective in this study was to calculate costs and benefits caused by a safe community injury prevention programme in Motala, Sweden. The study design was a quasi-experimental evaluation involving an intervention population and a non-random control population. All injuries were recorded before and after an intervention programme. The presented calculations show that costs of injuries in a societal perspective decreased from 116 million Swedish Crowns (SEK) to 96 million SEK, while the cost for the intervention was estimated at approximately 10 million SEK. Thus, the safe community injury prevention programme in Motala should be judged as cost-effective.

This short story is about the use of a NZ Police safety belt-sled crash simulator to deliver the seat belt safety message to teenagers at Upper Hutt's Heretaunga College. "Every student had a chance to take a ride on the sled which simulates the effect of a crash at 12 km/h. The sled is designed to give people an idea of the forces placed on the body when it stops suddenly."

BACKGROUND: There is a lack of evidence on description of burden and cases of childhood poisoning in developing countries. This study aimed to assess the characteristics of children with acute poisoning, and factors for time of presentation to health facility and nature of poisoning. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted at three major pediatric referral hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Description of demographics of children with acute poisoning and factors associated with time to presentation and nature of poisoning were analyzed. Data were entered to Epi info 3.5.3 and analyzed with SPSS version 20. RESULTS: Over three years, we retrieved records of a total of 128 children admitted for acute poisoning. The mean age of victims was 5.46 (SD, standard deviation=4.48) years. The majority (29.7%) were poisoned by prescribed drugs. Most poisoning incidents (73.5%) were unintentional in nature. The median time to health facility visit was 15.5 hours. Age less than 2 years was related to earlier presentation to health facility (P=0.010, OR=0.28, 95%CI=0.10-0.74). Children with age more than 5 years was more likely to have intentional poisoning ( (2)=25.06, P<0.0001). None of the victims was provided psychosocial evaluation and counseling. CONCLUSION: Most poisoning incidents are unintentional. Prescribed drugs are the commonest causes. Psychosocial counseling and care for the affected children is lacking. Family and community education should be given on prevention of poisoning. We recommend that caregivers take the required action in keeping prescribed drugs at home. Psychosocial support should be part of care and treatment of children with poisoning.

OBJECTIVES: All-terrain vehicle (ATV) crashes have been responsible for significant injuries among children, despite public education efforts. Our study examined pediatric ATV injury patterns in US emergency departments (EDs) compared with injuries after motor vehicle crash (MVC) and sports activities. METHODS: We studied 2006 to 2011 data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample. Children younger than 18 years and involved in ATV crashes, MVC, or sports activities were included. The primary outcome analyzed was a constructed binary measure identifying severe trauma, defined as injury severity score greater than 15. Logistic regression models were fit to determine the association between mechanism of injury and severe trauma. RESULTS: A total of 6,004,953 ED visits were identified. Of these, ATV crashes accounted for 3.4%, MVC accounted for 44.7%, and sports activities accounted for 51.9%. Emergency department visits after ATV crashes were more likely to result in admission (8%) and incur higher median charges ($1263) compared with visits after sports activities (1%, $1013). Visits after sports activities were 90% less likely to result in severe trauma when compared with ATV crash visits. Emergency department visits after ATV crashes result in severe injuries similar to those sustained in MVC (odds ratio, 1.03; P = 0.626). CONCLUSIONS: Pediatric ED visits after ATV crashes result in significant injuries and charges. Public health interventions such as education, legislation, and engineering are needed to reduce injuries among children and the subsequent ED visits for care. The impact of proven interventions may be greatest for children living in rural areas and among older children, 10 to 17 years old.

PURPOSE: Childhood visual impairment has significant individual and socioeconomic costs with global differences in etiology and prevalence. This study aimed to determine prevalence, etiology, and avoidable causes of childhood visual impairment in New Zealand. DESIGN: Retrospective data analysis from a national referral center,

Norma Hooks is Coordinator of the Plunket Car Seat Rental Scheme in Gisborne. Article also includes information about a promotion to boost restraint awareness which coincided with a police road safety campaign. Results show restraint usage for children in the back seats of cars had jumped from 68% (22 July) to 91% (26 August)[1999]

A guide to how local government functions in new Zealand.

Data for a 5-year period, 1990-1994, show that each year approximately 211,000 preschool and elementary school children in the United States receive emergency department care for playground injuries. On average 17% of these injuries result in death. 70% occur in public playgrounds, with nearly one third calssified as severe. Swings, climbers and slides are the pieces of equipment involved in 88% of cases, and falls account for 70%.

Both susceptibility to injuries and understanding of safety issues are significantly influenced by a child's developmental level. Knowledge of developmentally based teaching strategies will enable nurses to provide effective safety education to parents and children.