Publications by authors named "Lara McKenzie"

Purpose: To examine Pinterest pins to discern the content, messaging and claims, and engagement with pins regarding formula hacking and homemade formula.

Background: The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discourage formula hacking (ie, preparing formula not according to directions to extend its use) and making homemade infant formula due to its associated health risks. Yet, caregivers are using social media platforms to find information on these topics.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To understand tension mothers experience when attempting to follow American Academy of Pediatrics safe sleep guidelines and enhancing infant and parental sleep.

Methods: Surveys and focus groups were conducted from November 2022 and March 2023 with United States-based English-speaking mothers of infants <6 months of age recruited via social media and who reported a nonrecommended sleep position and/or location ≥2 times the prior week.

Results: Twenty-five mothers participated in focus groups and surveys.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • This study analyzed US emergency department cases of dance-related injuries in children aged 3 to 19 from 2000 to 2020, revealing an alarming 68.1% increase in injury rates over the period.
  • A total of 489,119 children sought treatment for these injuries, with girls being the majority (80.3%) and older teens (ages 15 to 19) having nearly half of the cases.
  • Most injuries were sprains/strains, often in the lower extremities, with significant risks linked to unstructured dance activities, especially among younger children, indicating a need for targeted injury prevention strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Participation in martial arts has grown significantly, with millions of children involved, but the most thorough study of related injuries was conducted nearly 20 years ago.
  • A study analyzed data from 2004 to 2021, revealing around 176,947 children were treated for martial arts injuries in US emergency departments, with injury rates peaking in 2013 and showing a decrease by 2021.
  • Common injuries were strains/sprains, particularly in children aged 6-11, and competitive events had a much higher risk for serious injuries like head/neck trauma, highlighting the need for uniform safety regulations across martial arts disciplines.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Existing concussion education programs for preteen athletes typically do not result in sustained improvements in concussion symptom recognition or reporting behaviors. Virtual reality (VR) technology offers an innovative tool that may improve concussion symptom recognition and reporting behaviors among preteen athletes.

Objective: We aimed to describe the design and development of a VR concussion education app, Make Play Safe (MPS), and present findings on the usability and preliminary efficacy of MPS in improving concussion recognition and reporting intentions among soccer athletes aged 9-12 years.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Vaccination scholarship often explores how social networks foster vaccine refusal and delay, revealing how social and institutional relations produce refusing or delaying parents and un- or under-vaccinated children. It is likewise critical to understand the development of pro-vaccination orientations by researching those who want to be vaccinated since such attitudes and associated practices underpin successful vaccination programmes. This article explores pro-vaccination sociality, personal histories and self-understandings during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To describe the epidemiology of field hockey-related injuries of patients aged 6 to 24 years who were treated in US emergency departments from 2000 to 2020.

Design: The researchers conducted a retrospective analysis using data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS).

Setting: The NEISS collects data on recreational activity-related and consumer product-related injuries treated in US Eds.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Aim: Australian authorities made COVID-19 vaccines available for children aged under 5 years old with serious comorbidities in August 2022. There is presently no universal programme for young children, but crucial to any rollout's success is whether parents are motivated and able to vaccinate. By examining parents' vaccine intentions, this study aims to inform current and future COVID-19 vaccine roll-outs for children aged under 5 years.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: To examine the association between state seat belt laws and the prevalence of seat belt use among a nationally representative sample of teenagers in the United States, taking into consideration state-specific child restraint laws that could affect teenagers of different ages.

Methods: Data were from the 2019 state Youth Risk Behavior Survey. We estimated prevalence ratios using modified Poisson regression with robust variance estimates to evaluate associations between state seat belt laws and seat belt use.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: To slow the spread of COVID-19, many nonessential businesses, daycares, and schools closed, and areas imposed "stay-at-home" orders. Closures led to young children spending more time at home, traditionally, the place where more than one-half of unintentional pediatric injuries occur. The objective of the current study was to describe parental safety perceptions and confidence, safety device purchase and installation, and injury prevention practices and behaviors, in homes with children 6 years of age and younger, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: To describe the epidemiology of battery-related emergency department (ED) visits among children aged <18 years in the United States from 2010 to 2019 and compare with previous study findings.

Methods: Data on ED visits were obtained from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. Using narrative descriptions and diagnosis codes, battery-related cases were coded into four exposure routes: (1) ingestion, (2) mouth exposure, (3) ear insertion, and (4) nasal insertion.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The higher education participation and success rates of students in low socio-economic status (SES), regional, rural, remote, and isolated areas - who often attend university later in life - is a persistent concern in Australia and beyond. This article focuses on mature-aged students in low SES, regional and remote areas in Tasmania, Australia, proposing that universities harness local belonging when providing learning opportunities. It draws on a thematic analysis of 19 semi-structured interviews with current and prospective university students, and community stakeholders.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: To understand risk perception about cannabis use during pregnancy.

Design: Mixed -Methods. Setting: Focus groups.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: On 8th April 2021, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) made the Pfizer-BioNtech (Comirnaty) vaccine the "preferred" vaccine for adults in Australia aged < 50 years due to a risk of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) following AstraZeneca vaccination. We sought to understand whether this impacted COVID-19 vaccine intentions.

Method: We undertook qualitative interviews from February - April 2021 before and after the program change with 28 adults in Perth, Western Australia.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The rollout of vaccines against COVID-19 is prompting governments and the private sector to adopt mandates. However, there has been little conceptual analysis of the types of mandates available, nor empirical analysis of how the public thinks about different mandates and why. Our conceptual study examines available instruments, how they have been implemented pre-COVID, and their use for COVID-19 globally.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Injury is the leading cause of death for children but little is known about what types of injury prevention messages are communicated on Instagram. Conducted in the United States, the aim of this study was to better understand child injury prevention messages on Instagram to develop recommendations for the future. Informed by Social Cognitive Theory, a quantitative content analysis was conducted on all Instagram posts from selected organizations from May 2018 through April 2019.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Leading causes of unintentional child injury such as poisoning and falls are preventable, and the majority occur in the home. Numerous home safety interventions have been developed and tested to increase safety behaviors; however, no smart phone-based applications (apps) have been developed and evaluated for this purpose. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether a mobile technology-based health behavior change intervention, the Make Safe Happen® app, was an effective tool to increase safety knowledge and safety actions/behaviors for the prevention of child unintentional injuries in and around the home.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Ahead of the implementation of a COVID-19 vaccination programme, the interdisciplinary Coronavax research team developed a multicomponent mixed methods project to support successful roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine in Western Australia. This project seeks to analyse community attitudes about COVID-19 vaccination, vaccine access and information needs. We also study how government incorporates research findings into the vaccination programme.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To examine, using the National Poison Data System (the data warehouse for poison control centers in the US), magnet foreign body injuries in pediatric patients. We sought to report demographic data, outcome data, and case trends between 2008 and 2019.

Study Design: We conducted a retrospective analysis of the National Poison Data System for patients younger than 19 years of age with a magnet "exposure," which poison centers define as an ingestion, inhalation, injection, or dermal exposure to a poison.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Health organizations can use visuals that support observational learning in social media. The social cognitive theory construct of observational learning illustrates how social media messages can inform health-related behavior change. In a within-subjects design, parents (n = 150) were exposed to real-world social media posts where safety recommendation text and imagery was matched (n = 3) or unmatched (n = 3).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Golf cart-related injuries constitute a substantial source of morbidity, most notably in pediatric populations. Despite the high rate of injuries, there have been no meaningful changes in golf cart design or legislation to reduce the overall burden of these injuries. This study sought to characterize the epidemiology of golf cart-related injuries treated in United States hospital emergency departments.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To describe the epidemiology of sledding-related injuries among children and adults treated in US emergency departments (EDs).

Design: The researchers performed a retrospective analysis using data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS).

Setting: The NEISS collects data on consumer products-related and sports-related injuries treated in US EDs from approximately 100 hospitals that represent a probability sample of >5000 hospitals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Lacrosse is one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States. Its rules regarding permitted contact differ by sex and age. There are no known studies using a nationally representative data set to analyze lacrosse injury patterns over several years by sex and age in the youth population.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Motor-vehicle crashes (MVC) remain a leading cause of preventable injury and death for children aged 0-3 in the United States. Despite advancement in legislation and public awareness there is continued evidence of inappropriate child restraint system (CRS) use among the youngest passengers. The current study focuses on appropriate CRS use from 2011 to 2015 using data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) for children aged 0-3.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF