Education for parents may cut kids' injury risk

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Learning parenting skills may help families better protect their children from household hazards and injuries, according to a research review published Tuesday.

In an analysis of 15 studies, British researchers found that, in general, parents given education on child care and health were able to make their homes safer and lower their children's risk of injury.

Most of the studies focused on education for lower-income families, as these children tend to be at higher-than-average risk of injuries.

"The bottom line is that multifaceted programs that include parent education are effective in reducing childhood injury," lead study author Dr. Denise Kendrick, of the University of Nottingham, told Reuters Health.

She and her colleagues report the findings in the Cochrane Library, which is published by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international research organization aimed evaluating healthcare interventions.

Injuries are the leading cause of death among children in industrialized nations. Children from lower-income families are particularly at risk, and research suggests that this social gap is widening, according to Kendrick's team.

For their study, the researchers reviewed 15 studies from the U.S., Australia, Canada and the UK that looked at the effects of parent education on children's health and well-being. Most of the studies used home visits to teach parenting skills and evaluate the safety of each household.

When the researchers combined the findings of all the studies, they found that parent education cut children's injury risk by 18 percent. In addition, several individual studies showed that parents who received skills training took more steps to protect their children from household hazards -- like lowering the temperature on water heaters, covering electrical sockets and putting locks on cabinets to prevent accidental poisonings.

It's not clear, according to Kendrick's team, what types of parenting interventions are most effective at protecting children from injury. The studies they reviewed varied in their methods -- from giving parents a single lesson, for example, to providing once-a-week visits over the first year of a child's life.

Since the studies mainly used in-home visits, Kendrick said it's not known whether other types of education, like parenting-skills classes, would be as effective.

SOURCE: Cochrane Library, online October 17, 2007.