Safe Play Areas for Ross County Kids Project (SPARK)

Specific Aim 1 - In collaboration with partners in Ross County, renovate and develop playgrounds in Chillicothe.

Specific Aim 2 - In collaboration with partners in Ross County, promote safe play and play areas for children on farms.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Other Specified Personal Exposures and History Presenting Hazards to Health; Fall Involving Playground Equipment, Occurrence on Farm
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Playground renovation and development; Behavioral: Educational campaign

Detailed Description

Injury is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity among children in the United States. Because children spend much of their time playing, it is important that they have safe play environments where they can challenge themselves and develop physically, mentally, and socially. The SPARK Project will focus its intervention in Ross County, Ohio, an area with more than 930 farms. Prior to this project, relatively little has been done to promote the prevention of injuries to children who live and play on farms.

The specific aims of this project are as follows:

• In collaboration with partners in Ross County, renovate and develop playgrounds in Chillicothe, Ohio.
• In collaboration with partners in Ross County, promote safe play areas for children on farms.

The SPARK Project will employ a multi-faceted approach to injury prevention, centered on community partnership and collaboration. Utilizing methodology that was successfully developed and implemented as part of the Community Action for Playground Safety (CAPS) Program in Columbus, the SPARK Project will combine both active and passive injury prevention strategies to reduce playground and play-related farm injuries to children in Ross County.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 311
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Ohio
    • Columbus, Ohio, United States, 43205
      • The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• For playgrounds

  • must be seen at Adena Medical Center or Pickaway Pediatrics
  • must be the parent of a child younger than 6 years of age
  • must live in Chillicothe (if recruited at Adena) or Circleville (if recruited at Pickaway Peds)
  • must be English speaking
  • must be at least 18 years old

• For farms

  • must self-identify as living on a farm
  • must have a child younger than 6 years of age
  • must live in Ross county or Pickaway county
  • must be English speaking
  • must be at least 18 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

• Participants can only enroll in one study at a time

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Non-Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Other: Playground; The playground arm of the study will consist of playground audits and KAP surveys about playground safety in both Chillicothe and Circleville, Ohio. The intervention is Playground Safety Renovations and Development.	Other: Playground renovation and development; Playgrounds in Chillicothe will be renovated based on priorities determined by audits.; Behavioral: Educational campaign; Educational materials will be developed and distributed in Ross County.
Other: Farms; The Farm Arm will consist of farm audits with safety checklists and KAP surveys about farm safety. The intervention is a Safety Educational Campaign.	Behavioral: Educational campaign; Educational materials will be developed and distributed in Ross County.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Playground Hazards	The investigators hypothesize that the decrease in the number of identified playground hazards (comparing each playground to itself from the year 1 baseline survey to the year 3 follow-up survey utilizing a playground hazards checklist) will be significantly greater for the intervention playgrounds compared with non-intervention playgrounds in Circleville, Pickaway Co. The percentage increase in the number of playgrounds with adequate safety surfacing will be used as a proxy for playground hazardousness.	Year 1 baseline to year 3 follow-up

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Playground and Farm Safety Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Composite Scores	The investigators hypothesize that the improvement in the playground safety Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP) survey composite scores and farm audits from the baseline in year 1 to the follow-up in year 3 will be significantly greater for parents residing in Ross County than for parents in the non-intervention counties (Morrow and Pickaway).The playground safety KAP survey consisted of 7 items and individuals could receive a summed score of 0-7, with a score of 7 indicating mastery of the material.	Year 1 baseline to Year 3 follow-up

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Nationwide Children's Hospital
• Collaborators: Ohio State University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Gary A Smith, MD, DrPH, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: February 1, 2011
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 1, 2013
• Study Completion (Actual): June 1, 2013

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 7, 2011
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 7, 2011
• First Posted (Estimate): February 8, 2011

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): April 1, 2016
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 2, 2016
• Last Verified: March 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: rural; injury prevention; playgrounds; farms; safety knowledge, attitudes and practices; safe play
• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB10-00368

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO