Can textbook covers be used to increase poison center utilization?

Area of Science:

• Public health interventions
• Poison control center utilization
• Health education strategies

Background:

• Low utilization rates of the national poison help number (800/222-1222) were observed in specific counties.
• A targeted education program was designed to improve access to poison control services.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of an education program aimed at increasing poison center utilization.
• To assess the impact of distributing educational materials (textbook covers) in schools.

Main Methods:

• Identified 10 low-utilization counties for the intervention.
• Distributed textbook covers with poison help information to schools in these counties.
• Compared utilization changes in intervention counties with control counties over one year.

Main Results:

• Utilization rates for the national poison help number increased in both intervention and control counties.
• No statistically significant difference in utilization rates was found between the two groups (p = 0.84).

Conclusions:

• Distributing textbook covers had a minimal impact on poison center utilization beyond standard efforts.
• The educational intervention was not found to be a cost-effective strategy for increasing poison help number usage.