Dog bites: an opportunity for parent education in the pediatric emergency department.

OBJECTIVES: This study focuses on parental report of exposure to dogs and highlights the potential for using a computer kiosk in an urban pediatric emergency department to increase knowledge around dog bite safety.

METHODS: Nine hundred one parents of young children completed a kiosk assessment and received a report that contained information aimed at increasing knowledge about either dog bite prevention (PAR-DB, n = 453) or other safety behaviors (PAR-S, n = 448). The participants who received the dog bite prevention report (PAR-DB) were asked questions about exposure to dogs as part of the baseline assessment. All participants were telephoned 2 to 4 weeks later for a follow-up interview to measure knowledge differences.

RESULTS: The majority of respondents who answered the exposure questions reported seeing stray dogs (53%) and having dangerous dogs (43%) in their neighborhood. Few respondents reported that their child had been bitten by a dog (1%), but the majority (56%) reported having knowledge of another child having been bitten. Few respondents reported having a dog in their home (11%), and only 1 reported that her dog had bitten a child. A majority (56%) of dogs had not been spayed or neutered. Of families with dogs in the home, 20% reported leaving their child unattended with the dog. A minority (45%) of dogs left alone with children had been spayed or neutered.

CONCLUSIONS: PAR-DB parents achieved knowledge gains as a result of the Parent Action Report generated by the kiosk, demonstrating the potential to improve knowledge via a computer kiosk in a busy pediatric emergency department.