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ABSTRACT: Background
Unintentional injuries to children are a major public health problem. The online social media is a potential way to implement health education for caregivers in online communities. Using WeChat, a free and popular social media service in China, this study evaluated the effectiveness of social online community-based parental health education in preventing unintentional injuries in children aged 0-3.Methods
We recruited 365 parents from two community health centers in Shanghai and allocated them into intervention and control groups randomly. Follow-up lasted for one year. The intervention group received and followed their WeChat group and a WeChat official account for dissemination of reliable medical information. The control group received only the WeChat group.Results
Between the intervention and control groups, changes in unintentional injuries (OR = 1.71, 95% CI: 1.02-2.87, P = .04), preventability (β = 0.344, 95% CI: 0.152-0.537, P < .001), daily supervision behavior (β = 0.503, 95% CI: 0.036-0.970, P = .04), and behaviors for preventing specific injuries (β = 2.198, 95% CI: 1.530-2.865, P < .001) were significantly different, and change in first-aid skills for treating a tracheal foreign body were nearly significant (P = .06).Conclusions
The WeChat-group-based parental health education can reduce the occurrence of unintentional child injuries by improving parents' skills, beliefs, and behaviors. Online social communities promote health education and reduce unintentional injuries among children.Trial registration
ChiCTR1900020753. Registered on January 17, 2019.
SUBMITTER: Feng Y
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9666943 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Feng Yuheng Y Ma Xueqi X Zhang Qi Q Jiang Ruo R Lu Jun J Chen Kaiyue K Wang Huiping H Xia Qinghua Q Zheng Jicui J Xia Jingwei J Li Xiaohong X
BMC public health 20221116 1
<h4>Background</h4>Unintentional injuries to children are a major public health problem. The online social media is a potential way to implement health education for caregivers in online communities. Using WeChat, a free and popular social media service in China, this study evaluated the effectiveness of social online community-based parental health education in preventing unintentional injuries in children aged 0-3.<h4>Methods</h4>We recruited 365 parents from two community health centers in Sh ...[more]