Development and Effects of a Mobile Application for Safety Incident Prevention among Hospitalized Korean Children: A pilot Study of Feasibility and Acceptability

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to describe the development, feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of a safety incident prevention programusing the Safe Kids Hospital (SKH) application (app) among hospitalized Korean children aged 3-6 years. Design and methods: Through a literature review of studies on the development of mobile apps for child safety education, reference to educational apps on YouTube, and discussions among the research team, the SKH, a 2D gamebased learning app, was developed. The SKH makes use of hospital pictures from the Hospital Safe Scale-Kids (HSS-Kids) test, a structured pictorial questionnaire that measures hospitalized children's safety awareness. This study was a pilot test of the SKH app in an urban Korean medical center. A one-group pre-posttest design was used to evaluate the effect of the SKH app among 30 child-caregiver (parent or grandparent) pairs using the HSS-Kids. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore participants' experiences related to using the app. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed with t-test and content analysis, respectively. Results: The mean age of the children was 4.5 years. Their level of safety awareness increased after the safety incident prevention program using the SKH app (M = 17.80, 24.53; t = 6.275, p < 0.001). Participants considered the app easy to use and a fun way of learning, expressing overall satisfaction with the education program. Conclusions: The effectiveness, feasibility, and acceptability of the SKH app were established. Practice implications: The SKH app is a promising educational method in pediatric settings. (C) 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.