Background: According to the HCMC Trauma Registry, between 2003- 2007, 300 children between the ages of 0-14 were admitted with burns, of those 121 (40%) were due to hot liquids. In the children under age one, 37% were due to hot bath water. The majority (75%) of the others happened when children came in contact with other hot liquids (i.e coffee or soup). The second leading cause of burns to children admitted to HCMC was flames, followed by hot solids. ECHO TV began in September 2004 as a first-of-its-kind television series in the United States. Each month it produces a twenty-minute television program on a current health and safety issue in multiple languages. Topics range from influenza prevention to winter survival. Each topic is recorded in Spanish, Khmer, Lao, Somali, Vietnamese, and Hmong. Each episode includes a pre-recorded story, as well as a question and answer period in which ECHO hosts interview guest community leaders or topic experts who are fluent in the language in which the program is being produced. All shows are also open-captioned in English to help viewers improve English language skills. Currently the show is on Public Television channel 17 in the greater metro area, the plan is for it to go statewide by the end of the year. See attached informational sheets for more about ECHO and ECHO TV.
Design/ Method: In an effort to help prevent burns to children under age 14 we will work with the staff at ECHO to write and produce a 20 minute program on the dangers of hot liquids, flames, accelerants and the need for working smoke/CO detectors. The target audience will be parents and grandparents who have limited English proficiency. The shows will be taped at the public television station in St. Paul using health and safety experts from the six different cultures ( Hispanic, Lao, Hmong, Somali, Khmer, and Vietnamese) so the viewers will see and hear the information from a person from their own culture. All the shows will be subtitled in English.
The shows will air on public television stations throughout the state several times over a month long period and can also be viewed anytime on the ECHO web site (www.echominnesota.org). In addition, ECHO will duplicate and package DVDs of the show for us to distribute to clinics, public health agencies, cultural resource centers, and other hospitals in Minnesota. This could be very useful to hospitals that choose to be a trauma center in Minnesota as they are now required to provide their community injury prevention education.
We will track the success of the program though viewership tracking from the television station and web site hits. We will also track our burn registry statistics and fire department calls related to the target cultural groups when that data is collected
