Parenting interventions for the prevention of unintentional injuries in childhood

Parent education and training programmes can improve parenting, mothers' mental health and behaviour problems in children. This review looked at whether such programmes also help parents provide a safer home environment and reduce injuries in children. The reviewers found 15 parent education and training programmes that had been studied which measured home safety or childhood injuries. Eleven of these were home visiting programmes which provided a range of support services as well as parent education or training. These were usually provided to families whose children were considered to be at risk of poor health. The results showed that children from families who had received the education and training programmes had fewer injuries than those from families who had not had the programmes. The results for home safety were more varied, but some studies found a positive effect on home safety. It is not clear exactly how these programmes reduce injuries or whether they would work as well in less disadvantaged groups or in different settings.