Childhood injuries in rural Bangladesh

Project Summary

Injury and violence are major global killers of children, responsible for over 900,000 deaths in children and young people under the age of 18 years each year.  Unintentional injuries (mainly road traffic injuries, drowning, poisonings, burns, and falls) account for almost 90% of these injuries and they are among the top three causes of death among children.  About 90% of injury-related deaths occur in LMICs.

In Bangladesh, while childhood deaths due to infectious diseases have declined over the past decade, deaths due to injuries in the same age group are increasing.  Drowning accounts for more than 90% of injury deaths (and more than 40% of overall death) in children under 5.

There is a wide range of interventions that have shown to be effective in preventing and reducing injuries in all countries.  However, most of evidence on effectiveness of interventions for unintentional injuries is from high income settings and might not be easily transferable to LMICs.  In addition, there is limited evidence for community-based interventions, in both high income and LMIC settings.

This study aims to develop and assess the feasibility and acceptability of an integrated package of community mobilisation interventions in preventing injuries among under 5 children in rural Bangladesh.

The potential intervention will be an innovative integrated package of community mobilisation activities – combining the strengths of mass media in generating awareness, of household-visits in providing tailored practical advice, and of participatory learning and action groups (PLA) to catalyse social action using this awareness and advice to act on the community, household, and individual barriers to injury prevention.

To design this package, a critical review of risk factors for childhood injuries and existing interventions in rural Bangladesh will combined with a qualitative explorative study.  In addition, feasibility and acceptability of the designed intervention will be assessed by a small-scale pilot.

Key Project Information

Principal Investigator: Edward Fottrell
Co-Principal Investigator: Hassan Haghparast Bidgoli

Dates: April 2020 to October 2021

Status: Current

Partners: Bangladesh Diabetes Association (BADAS); Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB); Karolinska Institutet, Department of Global Public Health; Women and Children First-UK (WCF)

Location: Bangladesh

Funding: MRC

Contact: e.fottrell@ucl.ac.uk and h.haghparast-bidgoli@ucl.ac.uk

Resources

Publications

470 Feasibility of an community mobilisation intervention to prevent childhood injuries in Bangladesh (2022) Bidgoli HH, Ahmed AU, Kuddus A, et al