Researchers from the University of Nottingham want to speak to parents whose children have been taken to casualty to help develop guidance to prevent childhood injuries.
Families whose children have been brought to an emergency hospital department and given treatment for falls, scalds and poisoning, will be asked to complete a questionnaire on the circumstances surrounding the accident and the safety practices they regularly use in their home.
Information from the questionnaires will contribute to the Keeping Children Safe project, a joint five-year study with the Child Accident Prevention Trust to develop a set of recommendations and guidelines to reduce the number of young children requiring hospital treatment.
The university’s appeal for parents’ help comes as early years settings nationwide mark the Child Accident Prevention Trust’s National Child Safety Week , 20-26 June.
Researchers, who will visit hospitals in Nottingham, Derby, Norwich, Newcastle and Bristol, say they are particularly interested in speaking to parents from inner-city areas, which they say often have a higher rate of accidents at home.
They will also ask a child’s GP to forward a questionnaire to other families registered with their practice, who have a child the same age but have not ever been taken to hospital with an injury to act as a control group.
Lead author professor Denise Kendrick of the University’s Division or Primary Care said, ‘A large number of children are brought into casualty departments every year seriously or even fatally injured as a result of an accident in the home.’
‘We are keen to devise guidelines on the best ways of preventing these types of injuries which obviously relies on us gathering a wide range of evidence, which we can’t do without the co-operation of parents.
‘We want to learn from parents, from all walks of life, about what they do to keep their children safe, so we can work out which safety activities work best.’
Parents who are interested in taking part can contact Jane Stewart from the University of Nottingham on 0115 8466922 or email jane.stewart@nottingham.ac.uk
