Effectiveness of Internet-based Injury Prevention Program in Enhancing Mother's Knowledge on Child Safety

Background: Provision of anticipatory guidance to parents is recommended as an effective strategy to prevent injuries among young children. Internet-based anticipatory guidance is suggested to reinforce the effectiveness of injury prevention, and improve parents' knowledge on child safety. Parents receiving the guidance can reduce children's exposure to injury risk by adopting better childcare practices and using appropriate child safety devices at home.

Objective: This study will examine the effectiveness of Internet-based injury prevention program with parental anticipatory guidance in enhancing mothers' knowledge on child safety. It aims at increasing mothers' knowledge and motivation of learning about domestic injury prevention through a new Internet-based intervention model. It also targets to improve mothers' attitude and perceived behavioral control of domestic safety practice.

Methods: The study would adopt a randomized controlled trial design and recruit 934 mothers from the antenatal clinics and postnatal wards of two major public hospitals in Hong Kong. Participating mothers will be randomized into the intervention or control group with equal likelihood. Mothers in intervention group will be provided with free access to an Internet-based injury prevention program with anticipatory guideline whereas those in the control group will receive relevant parenting booklet.

Results: It is hypothesized that mothers' general and age-appropriate knowledge on child safety and motivation of learning about domestic injury prevention as the primary outcome measures will be enhanced.

Conclusions: The Internet is increasingly recognized as a practical and cost-effective platform for health education and safety information delivery. The goals of this study are to examine the effectiveness of a new Internet-based intervention program for improving mothers' knowledge, and raising mothers' awareness about the importance and consequences caused by domestic injuries.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Injury Prevention; Internet-based Intervention; Child Safety; Anticipatory Guidance; Chinese Mothers
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Internet-based injury prevention program

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 1012
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: ADULT; OLDER_ADULT; CHILD
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Mothers attending the antenatal clinics/staying in the postnatal wards at Kwong Wah Hospital or Queen Mary Hospital.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Mothers unable to read Chinese and those without access to Internet.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: PREVENTION
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: SINGLE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Intervention; Each participant will be provided an information package - the parenting booklet from Maternal and Child Health Centres (MCHCs) about domestic safety tips. Participants will be given an additional leaflet about the domestic safety website with address link and brief introductory information.	Other: Internet-based injury prevention program; An injury prevention website serves as the Internet-based intervention providing two key topics: 1) Types of domestic injury, and 2) how to prevent different types of domestic injury. The domestic injury prevention information "Home Safety Tips" is divided into four subgroups according to various safety issues relevant to infants/children's age groups. Apart from a knowledge hub, the website incorporates additional functions of feedback counselling, video demonstration, online consultation, games, safety checklist and discussion forum.
NO_INTERVENTION: Control; Each participant will be provided an information package - the parenting booklet from Maternal and Child Health Centres (MCHCs) about domestic safety tips. Only this booklet serves as the anticipatory guidance to mothers about domestic safety.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change of general safety knowledge	This component aims to evaluate mothers' general knowledge change related to domestic injury prevention. Questions will be designed as statement format and two key topics will be covered in the questionnaire: common childhood domestic injuries and safety precautions	At the beginning of the study and infants' ages of 18-month-old
2-month-old safety knowledge	This component examines 2-month-old domestic safety related knowledge, intention, attitude and perceived behavioral control of safety practice. The questionnaire consists of multiple-choice questions. This quiz answering design targeted to reinforce safety concepts as well as to sustain knowledge enhancement.	At infants' ages of 2-month-old
6-month-old safety knowledge	This component examines 6-month-old domestic safety related knowledge, intention, attitude and perceived behavioral control of safety practice. The questionnaire consists of multiple-choice questions. This quiz answering design targeted to reinforce safety concepts as well as to sustain knowledge enhancement.	At infants' ages of 6-month-old
9-month-old safety knowledge	This component examines 9-month-old domestic safety related knowledge, intention, attitude and perceived behavioral control of safety practice. The questionnaire consists of multiple-choice questions. This quiz answering design targeted to reinforce safety concepts as well as to sustain knowledge enhancement.	At infants' ages of 9-month-old
12-month-old safety knowledge	This component examines 12-month-old domestic safety related knowledge, intention, attitude and perceived behavioral control of safety practice. The questionnaire consists of multiple-choice questions. This quiz answering design targeted to reinforce safety concepts as well as to sustain knowledge enhancement.	At infants' ages of 12-month-old
18-month-old safety knowledge	This component examines 18-month-old domestic safety related knowledge, intention, attitude and perceived behavioral control of safety practice. The questionnaire consists of multiple-choice questions. This quiz answering design targeted to reinforce safety concepts as well as to sustain knowledge enhancement.	At infants' ages of 18-month-old

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Website usage statistics	Participants will be required to register as a member in order to assess the website. The investigators will be able to record all the actions taken by each user.	18 months
Website user acceptance	Towards the end of the intervention period, subjects will be reminded to complete a modified user acceptance evaluation from IBM Computer Usability Satisfaction Questionnaires. The practicability of the Internet-based domestic injury prevention website will be evaluated in terms of its layout, structure, usability, readability, accessibility and ease of navigation.	At the end of the study, an average of 18 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The University of Hong Kong

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Chow CB, Wong WH, Leung WC, Tang MH, Chan KL, Or CK, Li TM, Ho FK, Lo D, Ip P. Effectiveness of a Technology-Based Injury Prevention Program for Enhancing Mothers' Knowledge of Child Safety: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Res Protoc. 2016 Oct 31;5(4):e205. doi: 10.2196/resprot.6216.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (ACTUAL): July 1, 2016
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): December 31, 2018
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): December 31, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: June 13, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 13, 2016
• First Posted (ESTIMATE): July 18, 2016

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): April 18, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 16, 2019
• Last Verified: April 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Wounds and Injuries
• Other Study ID Numbers: injury prevention; 08150345 (OTHER_GRANT: Health Care and Promotion Fund of the Food and Health Bureau, the Hong Kong Government)