Feasibility of implementing a pediatric emergency department based head injury prevention program

Head injuries in children often occur during sports and recreation activities where no medical professionals are present. Thus, parents usually bear the responsibility of determining whether the injured child needs to be evaluated by medical professionals. This pilot study assessed the feasibility of a pediatric emergency department (PED) based head injury prevention and management program. Participating parents were randomly assigned either to an intervention group (e.g., educational session at PED provided by trained research staff), or a control group (e.g., usual care). Data was collected for both intervention and control groups at baseline and 6 months after the intervention. Additional data was collected from the intervention group at 24-48 hours, 1, and 3 months after the initial visit. A total of 24 parents were enrolled and randomly assigned into the intervention (n=14) and control (n=10) groups, with 20 mothers and 4 fathers and an average age of 32.9. Twelve boys and 12 girls participated. Of those enrolled, 13 parents (56.5%) correctly answered all 9 questions about concussions. Intervention parents rated the PED educational session as a 4.63, on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being excellent. They also reported the materials were very helpful. In one case, the mother was able to use the information learned from the intervention in a real head injury scenario involving her daughter. Despite the various challenges, the results of this study suggest that delivering such program in a PED is a feasible and important way to engage parents in head injury prevention.