Child supervision practices for drowning prevention in rural Bangladesh: a pilot study of supervision tools
- 1International Injury Research Unit, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- 2International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh
- Correspondence to Adnan A Hyder, Department of International Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, 615 North Wolfe Street, Suite E-8132, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; ahyder{at}jhsph.edu
- Accepted 12 February 2010
Abstract
Background Injuries are an increasing child health concern and have become a leading cause of child mortality in the 1–4 years age group in many developing countries, including Bangladesh.
Methods Household observations during 9 months of a community-based pilot of two supervision tools—a door barrier and a playpen—designed to assess their community acceptability in rural Bangladesh are reported in this article.
Results Statistical analysis of 2694 observations revealed that children were directly supervised or protected by a preventive tool in 96% of visits. Households with a supervision tool had a significantly lower proportion of observations with the child unsupervised and unprotected than households without a tool. Families that received a playpen had 6.89 times the odds of using it at the time of the visit than families that received a door barrier.
Conclusions Interventions such as the playpen, when introduced to households through community-based programs, are accepted by parents. Field trials are urgently needed to establish the effectiveness of barrier-based interventions at reducing under-five drowning mortality rates in low-income countries like Bangladesh.
Footnotes
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Funding This article is part of a larger study funded by the US Agency for International Development through the Global Research Activity grant to the Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Address: Ronald Reagan Building, Washington, DC 20523-0016, USA.
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Competing interests The authors have no competing interests to declare.
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Patient consent Obtained.
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Ethics approval This study was approved by the institutional review boards at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease, Bangladesh.
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Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; not externally peer reviewed.
