A Brief Educational Intervention Improves Medication Safety Knowledge in Grandparents of Young Children

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Increasing grandparent-grandchild interactions have not been targeted as a potential contributing factor to the recent surge in pediatric poisonings. We hypothesized that in grandparents with a young grandchild, a single educational intervention based on the PROTECT “Up & Away” campaign will improve safe medication knowledge and storage at follow-up from baseline. METHODS: This prospective cohort study validated the educational intervention and survey via cognitive debriefing followed by evaluation of the educational intervention in increasing safe medication storage. Participants had to read and speak English and have annual contact with one grandchild ≤ 5-years-old. Participants were recruited from a convenience sample of employees in a regional healthcare system. They completed a pre-intervention survey querying baseline demographics, poisoning prevention knowledge, and medication storage, followed by the educational intervention and post-intervention survey. Participants completed a delayed post-intervention survey 50–90 days later assessing medication storage and poisoning prevention knowledge. Storage sites were classified as safe or unsafe a priori; a panel classified handwritten responses. RESULTS: 120 participants were enrolled; 95 (79%) completed the delayed post-intervention survey. Participants were predominantly female (93%) and white (76%); 50% had a clinical degree. Participants averaged 1.9 grandchildren. Initially, 23% of participants reported safe medication storage; this improved to 48% after the intervention (OR 6.4; 95% CI = 2.5–21.0). 78% of participants made at least one improvement in their medication storage after the intervention even if they did not meet all criteria for safe storage. Participants also demonstrated retention of poisoning prevention knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: This brief educational intervention improved safe medication storage and poisoning prevention knowledge in grandparents of young children; further evaluation of this intervention is warranted.