A study from the Children's Hospital of Columbus, Ohio, published in the New York Times showed that an alarming number of children end up being injured from falling out of their cribs. This problem may appear to be unrelated to the issue of public health, but really, what's more related than an issue affecting dozens of children each day that could be fixed by simple government regulation changes on the manufacturing of cribs?
Though there have previously been statistics on the number of crib-related deaths, this was the first study to specifically focus on injuries that were non-fatal to children. The majority of these injuries, 9 out of 10, ended up giving the children either neck or head injuries, as this was the primary area of trauma when they fell.
Surprisingly, the number of injuries actually increased with the age of the child, reaching a peak when the child was around two years old. This trend occurred because as children aged, their parents failed to raise the safety bar in their cribs, instead leaving them at a level that left the kids free to climb out once they acquired walking abilities. Looking at data that was collected from 1990 through 2008, 181,654 children received this type of injury. Of this, 1.2 percent of the children died from their injuries.
The issue here is less an issue of having proper safety equipment in place, the safety bars are on cribs, but a matter of getting parents to actually follow the guidelines to keep their children safe. This underlines one of the main problems in public health, which is the disparity between people knowing what they should do and actually following through on it. It can be seen in the fact that I'm still not praying/meditating on a regular basis, it can be seen in the fact that people still smoke and die of lung cancer every year, and it is a problem that needs to be addressed somehow. Whether it be through parents keeping their children safe in cribs or any of the many other public health issues, behavior change is a major problem.
Here's another insightful article that goes hand in hand with Laura's argument.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Why-its-hard-to-change-unhealthy-behavior.htm
I think behavior change is difficult because of the way we learn behavior. Our existing patterns of behavior are possible because of constant repetition. When we put things into practice over and over again, the new behavior soon begins to become familiar enough to 'stick'. So, when we introduce a new behavior, especially one that conflicts with our current daily habits, we enter into a double behavior change process. We are not only required to repeat the new behavior enough to become familiar with it, but also practice it enough to block out the old behavior or to learn how to manage it into our already accustomed routine.
In light of public health, any tools or management systems that are developed can greatly aid in successful behavior change. I have noticed that going to the gym for 30 min a day/4 days a week, has been made so much less challenging when I share this commitment with another. We are each other's support system and we help each other to stick to our practice regime. It is always easier to say than actually do, therefore it is not difficult for me to remind and to push the other to follow through with their commitment. I think that in a public health system, if assigned partners or checkup management is implemented, behavior change can occur more readily and easily, thus making the process more bearable and realistic.
I think that this reinforces some of the concepts that we talked about in class, with the fact that there are layers and layers of reasons behind why the health of the public has weak spots. In this case, the issues range from the monitoring of manufacturers, to the quality of the manufacturers themselves, to the fact that at a policy level proper standards have not already been issued.
ReplyDeleteThis is a behavior, like Rebecca said, that needs to be changed from both policy makers, to parents changing the way that they operate the cribs, to public health officials to be persistent in promoting safety in important areas such as the health of infants, especially because they are difficult to care for because they cannot express or understand things that adults can.
My little sister actually broke her collarbone falling out of her crib when she was 9 months old so this article is appealing to me on a personal note. While the case of my sister and many such incidents are thankfully not fatal, I would think that it is concerning that despite recent technological advances we are still unable to provide adequate safety for the world's newborns. Sure some blame can be placed on industry for not providing safe cribs, but here could be a variety of other reasons. Parents who make the cribs may not make them to the exact specification or follow the directions. Parental negligence itself may be an issue.
ReplyDeleteIf parental negligence is an issue, than perhaps people need a nudge towards behavior change. Going off Rebecca's comment on the ease of being able to change behavior by having a partner, I feel that in child-rearing, the presence of a spouse can aid in this behavior change. Spouses and parents should be encouraged to provide support for each other in providing a safe environment for their children