Regulatory and Educational Initiatives to Prevent Food Choking Injuries in Children: An Overview of the Current Approaches.

Choking injuries are one of the major causes of death among children ages 0-3, and most of these injuries are related to food. This work provides an overview of the current recommendations for food choking prevention and educational targets as a basis for developing a unified common set of knowledge for primary prevention policies development. Guidelines published by professional membership organizations and national governments in the English language were considered. All of these guidelines provide lists of hazardous food items and recommendations for food preparation to minimize choking hazard. Together with recommendations for food preparation, also recommendations aimed at stakeholders (food manufacturers, health care providers, and public authorities) are provided, underlining that this severe public health problem should be further addressed by adopting integrated public health interventions. Our overview stressed the importance of developing educational and primary prevention policies to sensitize adult supervisors and to regulate dangerous food products in the market.

Increasing awareness of food-choking and nutrition in children through education of caregivers: the CHOP community intervention trial study protocol.

BACKGROUND: Choking is one of the leading causes of death among unintentional injuries in young children. Food choking represents a considerable public health burden, which might be reduced through increased effective preventative education programs. We present a protocol for a community intervention trial termed CHOP (CHOking Prevention project) that aimed to teach Italian families how to prevent food choking injuries and increase knowledge relating to nutrition. METHODS: Italian educational facilities were enrolled. Stratified randomization blocked by geographical area was performed. Each stratum was randomized to one of three different intervention strategies or to a control group. Educational intervention was delivered in the schools by experts and certified trainers as per the following three intervention strategies: directly to families (Strategy A); to teaching staff only, who subsequently delivered the same educational intervention to families (Strategy B); to health service staff only, who then delivered the educational intervention to teaching staff, who subsequently delivered the intervention to families (Strategy C). Participants completed a questionnaire about their knowledge on the topics presented during the educational interventions (pre-, post-, and follow-up of intervention). Information from the questionnaires was synthetized into 6 indicators in order to measure how effective each intervention strategy was. DISCUSSION: The issue of food choking injuries in children is relevant to public health. The protocol we present provides an opportunity to progress towards overcoming such challenges through a working model that can be implemented also in other countries. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03218618. The study was registered on 14 July 2017.

Peligro de asfixia: conocimiento de los padres sobre la aspiración de cuerpos extraños en niños / Choking hazard: parental knowledge on foreign body aspiration in children / Perigo de asfixia: o conhecimento dos pais sobre aspiração de corpos estranhos em crianças

La aspiración de un cuerpo extraño es una causa importante y prevenible de morbimortalidad en la infancia. Uno de los factores de riesgo principales de la asfixia es la falta de conocimiento de los padres y cuidadores acerca de los objetos peligrosos, las situaciones de riesgo y los signos clínicos de un cuerpo extraño en la vía aérea. Para evitar eventos de asfixia y realizar diagnósticos oportunos para el manejo adecuado, el conocimiento en la comunidad acerca de esta problemática debe aumentar. Evaluamos el conocimiento de los padres sobre la aspiración de cuerpos extraños en niños a fin de proponer estrategias de prevención y evitar nuevos accidentes.

The aspiration of a foreign body is an important and preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in childhood. One of the major risk factors of asphyxia is that parents or caregivers may lack knowledge of the dangerous nature of many objects, risk situations, and clinical signs of a foreign body in the airway. To avoid choking events and make an early and adequate diagnosis for the proper management of this unfortunate event, community awareness should be increased. We evaluate how much parents know about the aspiration of foreign bodies in children in order to propose prevention strategies as well as to avoid further accidents.

A aspiração de corpo estranho é uma causa importante e evitável de morbidade e mortalidade na infância. Um dos principais fatores de risco de asfixia é a falta de conhecimento dos pais e cuidadores sobre objetos perigosos, situações de risco e sinais clínicos de um corpo estranho na via aérea. Para evitar a asfixia eventos e fazer diagnósticos atempados para a correcta gestão, o conhecimento da comunidade sobre este problema deve aumentar. Nós avaliar o conhecimento dos pais sobre aspiração de corpo estranho em crianças, a fim de propor estratégias para a prevenção e evitar novos acidentes.