Injury-prevention counseling and behavior among US children: Results from the second injury control and risk survey

OBJECTIVES. The purpose of this work was to provide recent national prevalence estimates of pediatric injury-prevention counseling by health care providers, to compare these latest findings with those from a similar survey conducted in 1994, and to ascertain the association between counseling and safety behaviors. METHODS. We conducted a cross-sectional, list-assisted random-digit- dial telephone survey of randomly selected children in English- or Spanish-speaking households in all 50 US states and the District of Columbia. The main outcome measures were respondents' reports that they or their children received injury-prevention counseling from their child's health care provider in the 12 months preceding the interview, children's practices of safety behaviors, and the association of injury-prevention counseling and such behaviors. RESULTS. The overall proportion of US children receiving any injury-prevention counseling (42.4%) remained relatively unchanged, whereas counseling on selected injury-prevention topics increased significantly compared with reports based on the 1994 survey. Topic-specific injury- prevention counseling was positively associated with the posting of the poison control center telephone number in homes with children < 6 years of age and with bicycle-helmet use among children 5 to 14 years of age. CONCLUSIONS. Although the prevalence of pediatric injury- prevention counseling remains low, such counseling was associated with safer behaviors. This suggests the importance of pediatric injury- prevention counseling and indicates the need for health care providers to increase pediatric injury- prevention counseling in clinical practices.