A Mixed Method Study to Assess the Effect of Training of Adolescents on Perception and Practices regarding Unintentional Childhood Injuries

Abstract

Background: Adolescents are the future citizens of any society, who can be trained to become responsible members and also function as change agents in the community to improve children’s health. Child-To-Child Approach is an innovative technique which was used in the present study to improve perception and practices regarding unintentional childhood injuries, by training the adolescent population. Methodology: An intervention study was conducted in two villages of Delhi from April 2017 to July 2019, to test the Child-To-Child Approach in preventing childhood injuries, by training the eldest adolescent in each family of intervention area and encouraging them to disseminate the knowledge to other family members. Present study is a part of the main study and analyses improvement in Perception and Practice (PP) regarding injuries after intervention, as assessed from PP scores of adolescents eligible for training, other adolescents and adult women. Focus group discussions (FGD) for assessing perception were also conducted with adolescents and adult women, at the beginning and end of study. Results: During pre-intervention period, PP scores of all three groups of subjects showed no significant difference between the two areas. Statistically significant improvement was observed in PP scores of all three groups of subjects in the intervention area during the post-intervention phase, in comparison to pre-intervention phase as well as in comparison to scores of control area in post-intervention phase. Findings from the FGD showed that perception of both groups regarding types and reasons of injuries was low in the beginning, but increased markedly in the second FGD in both the groups, compared to the first FGD. Conclusion: These findings indicate that training adolescents and encouraging them to disseminate messages to their siblings and to the adult women of their families, which is the essence of Child-To-Child Approach, is effective in improving the perception and practices regarding unintentional childhood injuries.