Elsevier

Preventive Medicine

Volume 30, Issue 3, March 2000, Pages 179-187
Preventive Medicine

Regular Article
Child Pedestrian Injury Prevention Project: Student Results

Dedicated to the Memory of Ernst Wynder
https://doi.org/10.1006/pmed.1999.0622Get rights and content

Abstract

Background. Few comprehensive pedestrian safety interventions for primary-school-age children have been developed and evaluated. This paper reports the impact of the 3-year (1995–1997) Child Pedestrian In jury Prevention Project (CPIPP) on a cohort of 1603 children followed from age 6 to 9 years. This multicomponent project comprised an educational intervention for students, their parents and teachers, and the local community, as well as several environmental interventions. The primary aim of CPIPP was to improve children's road-related behavior and to enhance the safety of their road environment.

Methods. Three communities were assigned to the treatment conditions: (1) high—education, community, and environmental interventions; (2) moderate—education intervention only; and (3) comparison (usual road safety education). Children's pedestrian knowledge and road crossing and playing behaviors were assessed using a pre- and posttest self-report questionnaire. Their self-reported road crossing behaviors were validated using an observational schedule and brief interview.

Results. Children in the high and moderate intervention groups were significantly more likely to cross the road with adult supervision (P = 0.013) and play away from the road (P = 0.000) than the comparison group. No differences were detected in children's pedestrian safety knowledge between the intervention and comparison groups.

Conclusions. While several methodological limitations may have influenced the study outcomes, these data nonetheless indicate that in the study sample the CPIPP educational intervention deaccelerated the natural increase in children's pedestrian-related risk behavior.

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    The authors acknowledge their colleagues, Curtin University Health Promotion students, teachers, principals, school students, and their parents, Steve Jones, Anna Flintoff, and the Project Advisory Committee for their valued contributions to CPIPP and the contents of this paper. Thanks are also conveyed to Professor Ken Resnicow from Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, for his helpful comments on the manuscript. The Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation (Healthway); Main Roads Western Australia; and the CIPP study and the preparation of the manuscript. The Project was initiated and analyzed by the investigators.

    1

    To whom reprint requests should be addressed at Centre for Health Promotion Research, School of Public Health, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, Western Australia 6845. Fax: -61 89266-2958. E-mail: [email protected].

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