Manu: His hands, his friends! An educational short movie to prevent children's hand injuries.

Abstract

Hand injuries are a major public health issue and are very common in pediatrics, explained by children's world discovery. The aim of this study was to produce a short, animated video to raise awareness and educate children and their parents, by proxy, about common hand injuries, and to assess its effect. The video was shown to children at school. They were asked to complete an anonymous questionnaire before the projection and 21 days after, to analyze its impact and its spreading. Eight hundred and thirty five children, with an average age of 9.57 years old, filled the pre-projection questionnaire. Upon those children, 88% have already hurt their hands, 86% knew someone who had hurt their hands and 30% did not know the dangerous situations for the hands. Out of the 565 children who filled the post-projection form, 97% answered that they understood the dangerous situations for the hands, with a significative difference compared to the pre-projection answers. 45% watched the video with their parents, 33% advised their families to watch it and 57% thought they would change their habits. Hand injuries should be a priority, to reduce their incidence and consequences. This short video sets out the various possible accidents and risk situations, targeting children between 6 and 12 years old, and indirectly adults. Even if this study has encouraging results, spreading must be improved and association with incidence of hand injuries followed to evaluate its impact and benefits.