Improving safe street-crossing behaviors among primary school students: a randomized controlled trial

Background: Child pedestrian injury is a global public health concern. Our aim in the present study was to investigate the effects of active learning-based educational intervention on street-crossing behavior among male primary school students in Mehriz county, Iran. Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, 90 first grade elementary school students(experiment = 50, control group = 48) participated. The "ASSURE Model" was applied to design the template of this active learning-based educational program, which was implemented for the experiment group in eight sessions. Behaviors of the students about ‘’looking for vehicles on the street’’, "being cautious of dangers’’ and ‘’crossing from safe places’’ were observed and documented in actual traffic environments before, 1 week, and 6 months after intervention. Results: One week and 6 months after the intervention, the experiment group’s performance in all 3 behaviors were significantly improved (P < 0.001). Distraction-adjusted differences in the mean scores of behaviors between the experiment (Mean = 2.62) and control (Mean = 3.19)groups before and 6 months after intervention (Mean in experiment groups = 6.3, Mean in control group = 4.24) were also statistically significant (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Our educational intervention was found to be helpful in promoting the street crossing behaviors of primary school-aged children. School healthcare professionals may apply active learning education as the core category of their interventional programs to promote street-crossing behaviors among primary school students.