[Parents' risk perception and analysis of children's injuries scenarios from cold fat removers].

Background: Cold fat removers cause serious injuries to children.

Objectives: (1) To examine the knowledge, awareness and reported behaviors of parents concerning cold fat removers and to follow trends over time, before and after an intervention program. (2) To learn the common scenarios of injuries from cold fat removers in order to deepen the understanding of their occurrence and to promote prevention activities.

Methodology: (1) Three telephone surveys of a representative sample of parents of children under the age of 15 years in the Jewish population were conducted during the period January 2004-June 2006. The sampling was performed in two stages: a stratified sample and a random sample in each layer. Results were analyzed in accordance with the children's age and the socio-demographic characteristics of the families. (2) Analysis of the children's injuries scenarios from cold fat removers of hospitalized children was conducted. The scenarios were collected from seven hospitals in Israel during January 2004-June 2006.

Results: The percentage of parents that were aware of the danger of ingestion of cold fat removers was significantly higher in June 2005 (40%) in comparison to January 2004 (22%). Only half of the sampled parents in January 2005 (53%) were aware of the fact that body contact with cold fat removers is more dangerous than bleach. About two thirds of sampled parents in June 2005 stated that they store their detergents in a safe place: 46.5% of parents store their detergents on a high shelf and 18% store them in a locked place. Thirteen scenarios of children's injuries due to cold fat removers were analyzed. The results showed that most injuries were at home, and that the main failures were due to human factors, underestimation of danger and a combination of these factors. Most of the injuries occurred both to infants and toddlers under 4 years of age and also in young children (6-8 years old); half of the scenarios occurred in the Arab population.

Conclusions: A positive trend in parents' awareness of the danger of cold fat removers was observed. This trend was noted over the same period of time that the intervention program conducted by Beterem and the Israeli Ministry of Health took place. Yet, we cannot determine in certainty that this positive trend was due to the intervention program. Intervention programs implemented through health professionals, changes in the product and research and evaluation should be continued and promoted.