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.