Objective Methodology Results Discussion

3 Home Safety Practices for Prevention of Poisoning in Young Children ABSTRACT Home Safety Practices for Prevention of Poisoning in Young Children Shoba Pathmanathan¹, Lina Hashim², Affendi Yusuf³, Vishanthri Kulasingam 4 , Hooi-Meng Puah 5 , Amar-Singh HSS ¹,² , Sondi Sararaks 6 , Ranjit Kaur Praim Singh 7 , Asmah Zainal Abidin 7 1 Paediatric Department, Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun Ipoh 2 Clinical Research Centre Perak 3 Manjung District Health Office 4 Greentown Health Clinic 5 Kinta District Health Office 6 Institute for Health Systems Research 7 Perak State Health Department Introduction and Objectives Poisoning in young children is defined as unintentional ingestion of medications and common household products or chemicals. Poisoning in young children is a preventable cause of mortality and morbidity. Poisoning accounts for 2 of the accidental deaths in developed countries and for 5 in developing countries. Most poisoning accidents occur in children aged between 1 to 4 years old. The objective of the study was to evaluate and improve home poison safety practices to prevent poisoning in homes with children aged 1-4 years in the Kinta and the Manjung Districts. Methodology The study was a non-controlled community trial conducted at urban and semi-urban areas in Perak state to assess home safety practices and effectiveness of an intervention programme in home setting. Initial validation of a safety device involved 100 children and 100 adults parentscaregivers accompanying the child who attended Ministry of Health MOH health clinics and were recruited to test two home safety devices. In both urban and semi-urban areas, 300 households with children aged 1-4 years were randomly selected. They were audited at baseline. Two post-intervention audits were conducted at 3 and 6 months post-baseline audit using the same tools as in the first audit. The households were divided into two intervention arms. Caregivers in the first arm received Intervention Package 1 which consists of an immediate post-audit feedback, an educational pamphlet and a home safety device while caregivers in the second arm received Intervention Package 2 which consists of an immediate post-audit feedback and an educational pamphlet. Results At baseline, 60-71 of urban and semi-urban households in Perak had unsafe home safety practices to prevent poisoning in young children. Only 30 20.4 households in the Kinta District compared to 79 52.7 households in the Manjung District had good