DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A VIDEO-BASED SCHOOL CHILDREN ROAD INJURY PREVENTION TOOL (V-SCRIPT) IN KARACHI: A QUASI EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
By: Uzma Rahim Khan, Umerdad Khudadad, Shafiqa Mehry, Asrar Ali, Ahmed Rahim, Sarwat Masud, Afzal Ahmed, Ambreen Ahmed, Munira Ali, Nawal Rehmani, Ali Abidi, Syeda Saadia Sajid, Malika Lalani, Zeyanna Dhalla, Umar Farooq (The Aga Khan University, Pakistan)
Background: Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality for children aged 5-18 years. Given their inability to gain on-road experience, children could potentially benefit from road safety training that enhances their capacity to discern potential hazards and react appropriately.
Objectives: The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate an interactive web-based application for assessing and enhance the hazard perception abilities and to compare the knowledge scores before and after web engagement among school children in Karachi, Pakistan.
Methods: A quasi-experimental pre-and-post design was utilized in which six video scenarios, featuring school children as actors, demonstrated risky and safe behaviors as road users. Each scenario included a hazard identification question related to the video content, embedded in a dedicated project website. The process involved hazard detection tests followed by training videos on the same scenarios, concluding with a retest. The maximum hazard identification score was 13. Participants comprised students in grades 6 to 10 from nine Karachi schools, with parental consent and child assent secured.
Results: The total of 372 children from 7 private and 2 public schools participated. Majority of the children 314 (84.4%) were aged between 10-14 years and rest 15-19 years. Majority of the participants 203 (54.6%) were girls. There was higher mean score of correctly identified hazards 11.8 (±1.5) in the post-training evaluation compared to11.3 (±1.6) for the pre-training evaluation p < 0.001. Demographically, younger school children showed a greater change post-intervention 12 (±1.4) versus 11.3 (±1.6) pre training than older children 11.3 (±2) in post training versus 11.1 (±1.7). A difference between results across sex was not observed.
Conclusion: The innovative technological approach explored within this study holds potential for improving the road traffic knowledge and engagement of school children in road safety.