Conclusion: Indications for effectiveness
Fire safety skills training increases fire safety skills of children. More detailed:
*Programs using active participation by children learning fire responses are more effective than those
using passive methods;
*Training in small groups of children has resulted in high acquisition of skills in diverse populations;
*The addition of fear reduction techniques and teaching the rationale supporting the use of correct fire
response behaviours may significantly improve skill retention;
*Periodic repetition of material is required for maintenance of knowledge and skills;
*Even with intensive methods, there is poor long term retention of skills;
*The use of figures of authority in fire safety skills training (e.g., fire fighters) may increase knowledge
gain.
However, at this time there is no study directly linking training to injury reduction.
Recommendations (for research & practice)
Suggestions for practice and policy:
Small group and behavioural approaches are effective (at improving behaviour related to burns prevention) but the application of these approaches on a large scale is impratical. Policy makers may encourage such approaches but may not be able to mandate them.
Review Date: 27/10/2011
Version: 1.1
Status: Publish
Procedure
Articles (reviews) and reports were included that were published between 1999 and 2010, in English and Dutch. The outcomes of the study were reviewed by the Dutch Consumer Safety Institute.
Strategy: An online literature search was performed by a researcher of the Consumer Safety Institute and after this a more thorough search was performed by the documentation centre of CSI (Catalog CenV, Pubmed, Injury lit, Google, Websites, 'Grey' literature). Results of each search were compared on differences and potential missed studies were added. First the titles and then abstracts were scanned in order to include relevant studies. In the case of insufficient information obtained from abstracts the full text articles were obtained. Relevant articles were scrutinized and background documents were created. In addition, relevant references of included articles were checked on new and relevant articles (i.e., snowball search).
The outcomes of the study were reviewed by an expert in the field of child safety in the summer of 2010.
Background documents
House fire injury prevention update : part II : a review of the effectiveness of preventive interventions (version 1.0)
Lynne Warda, Milton Tenenbein, Michael E.K. Moffatt (1999)
Child Safety Good Practice Guide : good investments in unintential child injury prevention and safety promotion (version 1)
M. MacKay, J. Vincenten, M. Brussoni, L. Towner ...[et al.] (2006)