Home safe home: Evaluation of a childhood home safety program.

Background: The London Health Sciences Centre Home Safety Program (HSP) provides safety devices, education, a safety video and home safety checklist to all first-time parents for the reduction of childhood home injuries. The objective of this study was to evaluate the HSP for the prevention of home injuries in children up to 2 years of age. Methods: A program evaluation was performed with follow-up survey, along with an interrupted time series analysis of Emergency Department (ED) visits for home injuries 5 years pre- (2007-13) and 2 years post- (2013-15) implementation. Spatial analysis of ED visits was undertaken to assess differences in home injury rates by dissemination areas controlling differences in socioeconomic status (SES) (i.e., income, education, lone-parent status) at the neighborhood level. Results: A total of 3,458 first-time parents participated in the HSP (a 74% compliance rate). Of these, 20% (n=696) of parents responded to our questionnaire with 94% reporting the program to be useful (median 6, IQR=2 on a 7-point Likert scale) and 81% learning new strategies for preventing home injuries. The median age of the respondent's babies were 12 months (IQR=1). The home safety check list was used by 87% of respondents to identify hazards in their home, with 95% taking action to minimize the risk. The time series analysis demonstrated a significant decline in ED visits for home injuries in toddlers

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