An Injury-Prevention Program to Combat Child Mortality

A critical part of reducing child mortality is preventing unintended injuries. Across the United States, unintentional injuries are responsible for approximately 1 in 5 child deaths.

Since the summer of 2022, Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the City of Columbus have partnered to reduce child mortality through a free community-based program called Safety City. Through the program, children who are 5, 6 and 7 years old learn safety lessons designed to help prevent the most common causes of injury.

Nationwide Children’s worked with the City of Columbus Department of Neighborhoods to develop the program from an evidence-based curriculum called Safety Town that has been available nationwide for decades.

“We’ve made the curriculum more specific to the City of Columbus,” said Katie Higgins, manager of Infant and Child Wellness at Nationwide Children’s.

In central Ohio, Safety City has predominantly been offered in middle class and upper-middle class suburban municipalities. Until the summer of 2022, Columbus had not hosted a Safety City program since the 1980s.

“When we looked at the child mortality and injury data from the Nationwide Children’s Emergency Department, we saw a lot of preventable injuries,” said Higgins. “By providing this education, hopefully we will see those numbers decrease over time.”

Nationwide Children’s also determined which Columbus neighborhoods had higher rates of emergency department utilization for unintended injury.

“We take Safety City to the neighborhoods where we see the highest rate of injuries in order to remove any access barriers for those families,” said Higgins.

One of the biggest components of the Columbus Safety City curriculum is fire safety, including “stop, drop and roll” and how to get out of a house if a smoke detector goes off. The program also has a firefighter speak to the children in full firefighting gear, including the mask.

“Hopefully, by meeting a firefighter in all of their gear, the kids will recognize them as a safe individual who is there to help and not somebody to hide from,” said Higgins.

The program does a similar exercise with law enforcement by partnering with the Ohio State Highway Patrol. The children meet a law enforcement officer in full uniform, tour a cruiser and learn about firearm safety.

Columbus Safety City partners with many Nationwide Children’s services and departments. For example, the Central Ohio Poison Center (based at the hospital) teaches the children to stay away from medications and cleaning products, the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition covers hydration and healthy snacks, Behavioral Health Services teaches them what to do with big feelings, and School Health Services covers body safety and consent.

This year, The Center for Family Safety and Healing at Nationwide Children’s is covering a new topic on “Avoiding Tricky People”.

“It would be called ‘Stranger Danger’, but these people are not always strangers,” said Higgins. “This takes a more holistic approach regarding who are trusted adults and who are not.”

Each program lasts for four days and covers eight lessons each day. The final day includes a graduation ceremony to celebrate everything the kids have learned. Safety City also sends the children home with resources, including a bicycle helmet and a smoke and carbon monoxide detector.

During the pilot program in summer 2022, about 80 kids attended Columbus Safety City programs over three locations before nearly tripling the following summer to 235 kids over six locations thanks to a partnership with Columbus City Schools.

This summer, Nationwide Children’s will host three Safety City programs in the community starting July 15 and three programs through Summer Experience, Columbus City Schools summer camp.

“We reach six different schools' worth of kids in three weeks,” said Higgins. “It’s a fantastic partnership that meaningfully extends our reach.”

While Nationwide Children’s is still developing the best way to collect emergency department utilization data that correlates with the Columbus Safety City program, other data shows that kids are learning and remembering new information each week.

In 2023, almost 95% of the children who attended Columbus Safety City demonstrated overall increased knowledge through a pre-test on the first day of the program versus a post-test on the final day.

“This shows us that the kids remember what we’ve taught them and they're able to put it into action when necessary,” said Higgins.

Published June 2024