A randomised, controlled trial of home injury hazard reduction: The HOME injury study

Background The home is a leading location of injury for young children. Objective Test the efficacy of home safety device installation on medically-attended injury. Methods Of 8878 screened prenatal patients, 1263 (14%) were eligible and 468 (37%) agreed to participate. 355 children were born and randomly assigned to experimental (n=181) or control (n=174) groups. The mean number and density (no. per area) of hazards were assessed at home visits by trained research assistants using a validated survey. Medically-attended visits were measured by telephone survey. Two intention-to-treat analyses were conducted on (1) total injury rates and (2) on injuries deemed, a priori, preventable by installation of devices. Rates were calculated over 24 months using Poisson regression and generalised estimating equations. Results The mean age of children at intervention was 6 months. Injury hazards were significantly reduced from baseline to 12 months in intervention but not control homes (p