NFPA and Johns Hopkins to study how best to teach children about fire safety
First time groups work together to enhance fire safety education

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) announced a joint project titled Strengthening the Impact of Fire and Life Safety Messages on Children. The goal is to determine the best way to communicate fire safety messages to children ages 3-9. Each year approximately 290 children ages 3-9 die as a result of fire in the U.S. This project is made possible by funding from FEMA’s Grant Programs Directorate, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, AFG Fire Prevention and Safety Grants.

“Fire departments and other safety educators reach out to millions of children each year to help them learn how to keep themselves safe from fire and other hazards,” said Judy Comoletti, NFPA’s division manager of public education. “As safety educators, it is vital that we understand and continually review what types of messaging have the greatest impact on children when encouraging them to practice safe behaviors.  Resources being developed through this project will guide us and others interested in ways to best reach this young audience and their families with life-saving information.”

Through this project, the two organizations are seeking to increase safety behaviors among children. Children will be asked to observe video vignettes that vary how safety content is communicated and how safety messages are framed. Researchers will evaluate what they learn, which types of messages have the most impact on children and how their parents react to the program.

“The outcomes of this study will contribute to understanding how children and their parents react to safety messages,” said Andrea Gielen, ScM, ScD, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy. “Despite the fact that injuries are the number one cause of death for children in the U.S., little is currently known about how best to reach them with safety information.”

To ensure the outcomes of this study will impact future health education work, a guide for developing educational materials will be developed to help others involved in fire and life safety programs. The guide will be available on NFPA’s Web site for use by any fire department or other fire safety organization. The project is slated to be completed by July 2010.

Leading Injury and Health Organizations Urge Congress to Save Lives and Money by Including Injury Prevention in Health Care Reform

A group of 18 research universities, professional organizations and advocacy groups have joined together to urge Congress to include injury prevention in health care reform.  Each day, 475 Americans die from injuries related to motor vehicle crashes, assaults, fires and other trauma.  This results in 170,000 deaths every year, more than twice that from diabetes and more than four times that of breast cancer. To reach  policymakers and their staffs with the message that research based injury prevention can save lives and money, the group will run  an ad  in the September 8^th  “Health Care Hits the Road” theme issue of Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill.  It is the first time these groups have come together to educate policymakers on the significant burden injuries pose to the health care system.

“Injury is one of the most serious and costly health problems in the United States, yet many people are unaware that many injuries can be prevented by applying what we already know works.  Right now we have an unprecedented opportunity to reduce costs and save lives,” said Andrea Gielen, ScD, ScM, director of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Injury Research and Policy, one of the participating groups. “As two key goals of health care reform are to contain costs and improve outcomes, it’s a logical part of the solution to include injury prevention in health care reform. ”

Key facts about injuries:

• During the August congressional recess, an estimated 4 million Americans received medical care for injuries, generating 9 billion dollars in lifetime medical expenses.

• Injury is the number one cause of death for people ages 1 to 45.

• Nearly 50 million non-fatal injuries in the U.S. each year require medical care.

• Annually, injuries generate lifetime costs to society of $406 billion, including $80 billion in medical care.

Examples of proven effective prevention measures that can save lives and money are car seats and bike helmets.  “These safety products have demonstrated their injury prevention and cost savings benefit time and again.  Yet, only a handful of children’s hospitals offer comprehensive safety resource centers that we know can ensure that parents have access to lifesaving education and effective injury prevention devices,” explained Gielen. “At the other end of the age spectrum, older adults who exercise regularly, have their vision checked, undergo medication management, and who have access to a home hazard assessment can reduce their risk of experiencing a life-altering fall.  Comprehensive fall prevention services can help reduce the 11.5 million falls treated annually in the health care system and the $14 billion in lifetime medical costs generated as a result.”  

Partner organizations include: American Academy of Pediatrics, American Trauma Society, Center for Injury Research and Policy of Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center, Home Safety Council, Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, Medical College of Wisconsin Injury Research Center, Mount Sinai Injury Control Research Center, National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions, National Fire Protection Association, Research!America, Safe Kids USA, Society for Advancement of Violence and Injury Research, State and Territorial Injury Prevention Directors Association, University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center, University of North Carolina Injury Prevention Research Center, Washington University Brown Center for Violence and Injury Prevention, and West Virginia University Injury Control Research Center.

The advertisement, links to the partner organizations, and more examples of how to include injury prevention in health care reform are available online at www.jhsph.edu/InjuryCenter/HealthCareReform.

Deaths from Unintentional Injuries Increase for Many Groups
Death Rate from Unintentional Poisoning Triples in Middle-Aged White Women

While the total mortality rate from unintentional injury increased in the U.S. by 11 percent between 1999 and 2005, far larger increases were seen in some subgroups analyzed by age, race, ethnicity and type of injury by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Injury Research and Policy. Their analysis found that white women between 45 and 64 years old experienced a 230 percent increase in the rate of poisoning mortality over the study period. White men in this age group experienced an increase of 137 percent. The study is available online at the website of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in advance of publication in the September print edition of the journal.

The study also found mortality rates from falls varied widely across age and gender. The death rate from falls increased 38 percent for white men and 48 percent for white women 65 and older. The mortality rate did not increase significantly for older blacks of either sex. Overall, 89 percent of the total increase in unintentional injury deaths in the U.S. between 1999 and 2005 was due to poisoning among those 15 to 64 years old and  falls among those 45 and older, which increased by about 11,200 and 6,600, respectively.

“The large increases in the number of deaths attributable to poisoning and falls underscore the need for more research on the specific circumstances involved,” said study co-author Susan P. Baker, MPH, a professor with the Bloomberg School’s Center for Injury Research and Policy. “While we don’t know the cause behind the recent increase in falls mortality, it appears that the increase in poisonings is largely due to prescription drugs.” Baker says national prevention efforts are needed to control the abuse of prescription drugs and limit access. Prescriptions for opioid analgesics to address pain have increased dramatically in the past decade, and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that prescription drugs have replaced illegal drugs such as cocaine as the most prominent substances in fatal drug overdoses.
Senior author Guoqing Hu, PhD, and Baker analyzed data from the CDC Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS), which provides data on deaths according to cause and intent of injury. WISQARS mortality data are based on annual data files of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) of CDC.

In addition to falls and poisonings, four other leading causes of intentional injury deaths were identified for subsequent analyses: suffocation, drowning, fire/burns and motor vehicle crashes. Suffocation rates generally decreased or had no significant change, but they greatly increased in white children less than one year old. Drowning rates increased among white men 65 and older and among white middle-aged women, but decreased in black males 5 to 24 years old, black females 5 to14 years old, and whites females 15 to 24 years. Mortality from fires and burns decreased the most. The rate of dying due to a motorcycle crash more than doubled in Hispanic males 15 to 24 years and in white males ages 45 to 64 years.

“By teasing out the impact of gender, age and race on trends in mortality rates, we are able to better identify changes worthy of attention from clinicians and policymakers,” said Hu. “As injury continues to be a leading cause of death for all age groups, and in fact the leading cause of death for adults 44 and younger, it’s critical we redouble our efforts to prevent unnecessary suffering and save lives.”

The research was funded by the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy.