PR.I.U.S. Project - Preventing accidents and burns among school-aged children

Is a project funded by the Ministry of Health (CCM) and coordinated by the National Institute of Health. The project is conducted in cooperation with the Euro-Mediterranean Council for Burns and Fire Disasters (MBC), SIUst - the Italian Society for Burns and SPES Speranza Onlus.

It is a pilot project based on evidence of the risks of burns at home, derived from the data on the ISS sample accident monitoring system SINIACA-IDB (National Information System on Accidents within the Home Environment - Injury Database) - from 2005 onwards - and from current statistics on morbidity and mortality.
The overall objective of PR.I.U.S. is to increase awareness of the risks of burns in children and adults through a learning path tailored to their prevention and promotion of appropriate standards of behavior and first aid.
The project's specific aim is to test the effectiveness of teaching and learning module developed for the prevention of burns in children.

Many accidents in the home can be avoided if parents adopt appropriate behaviors and take simple measures.
Knowledge of the risks is a first and useful step in preventing many accidents.
Educating children using suitable methods and linguistic tools can help them to avoid situations involving the greatest risks of burns.
Adult involvement is also necessary in preventing the most common accidents at home, including those caused by contact with hot agents, as many of the risks to children cannot be totally eliminated by adult intervention.

Trials of an educational kit for children aged from 4 to 7 years old (at nursery and primary school), to prevent accidental burn injuries, was implemented through education in schools. Participants in the preliminary study were pupils from nine schools across eight Italian cities, which included eight Burn Centers.

The informational-educational program at schools in the selected cities covered:

• training for teachers and principals (trainers);
• training for the students, with the coordination of the school principals and teachers;
• distribution of evaluation tests before and after training;
• distribution of educational materials specifically for teachers and pupils (comics, brochures, posters, multimedia material). Two mascots were also created for the project: the Wizard Theodore and the Fairy Celeste with her cat Miao.

On completion of the project, a booklet of the results was compiled along with a manual for trainers which illustrated all the project stages.

For further information about project, please contact:
- Istituto Superiore di Sanità - darat@iss.it
- The Euro-Mediterranean Council for Burns and Fire Disasters - mbcpa@medbc.com
- SPES - Speranza Onlus - info@spes-speranza.org