Effectiveness of “Be SAFE Drowning Prevention and Water Safety Booklet” Intervention for Parents and Guardians

BACKGROUND: We aimed to assess the effectiveness of the health educational booklet intervention in improving parents/guardian’s knowledge on prevention of child drowning and, the perception of drowning risk and water safety practice. METHODS: A quasi-experimental study was conducted in year 2017 in Selangor, Malaysia among 719 parents/guardians of primary school children. The parent/guardians were randomly assigned as the intervention groups and were given a health educational Be-SAFE booklet on drowning prevention and water safety. The pretest was conducted before the intervention and posttest was done one month of intervention. The data collection tool was using a validated questionnaire on knowledge, attitude and practice for drowning prevention and water safety. RESULTS: There were 719 respondents (response rate of 89.9%) participated at baseline and 53.7% at end line (after the intervention). Significant differences found in knowledge, attitudes and practice on drowning prevention and water safety for the intervention and control groups after the intervention (P<0.001). There was a significant difference in mean scores for knowledge and attitude before and after the intervention, whereas no significant findings noted for practices (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Be SAFE booklet contributed to the increase in parents/guardian’s knowledge and attitudes towards drowning prevention and water safety to prevent the risk of child drowning.