Childhood Unintentional Injuries: Need for a Community-Based Home Injury Risk Assessments in Pakistan

• Main Authors: Adnan A. Hyder, Aruna Chandran, Uzma Rahim Khan, Nukhba Zia, Cheng-Ming Huang, Sarah Stewart de Ramirez, Junaid Razzak
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2012-01-01
• Series: International Journal of Pediatrics
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/203204

Background. A substantial proportion of the annual 875,000 childhood unintentional injury deaths occur in the home. Very few printed tools are available in South Asia for disseminating home injury prevention information. Methods. Three tools were planned: an injury hazard assessment tool appropriate for a developing country setting, an educational pamphlet highlighting strategies for reducing home injury hazards, and an in-home safety tutorial program to be delivered by a trained community health worker. Results. The three tools were successfully developed. Two intervention neighborhoods in Karachi, Pakistan, were mapped. The tools were pretested in this local setting and are now ready for pilot testing in an intervention study. Conclusion. Planning for an innovative, community-based pilot study takes considerable time and effort in a low-income setting like Pakistan. The primary outcome of the pre-testing phase of the study was the development of three important tools geared for low-income housing communities in Pakistan.