Determinants of behavioural risk factors for burn injuries

Systematically developed health education should be based on a thorough knowledge of the determinants of the behavioural risk factors. Compared to other health-related behaviours, safety behaviour has some specific characteristics, which complicate studying its determinants. First, there is a multitude of circumstances leading to injuries, which means that it is not possible to pinpoint one desired behaviour to be linked with the prevention of injuries. Secondly, people are often not familiar with (the advantages and disadvantages of) all the possible preventive measures. Thirdly, the usefulness of preventive measures may depend on housing situations. So far, no elegant way of coping with these problems in examining the determinants of safety behaviour seems to have been suggested in the literature. In this article an approach to the study of determinants of safety behaviour is presented. The general description of this approach is illustrated by a study on the determinants of the behavioural risk factors for burn injuries in young children, which was conducted among Dutch and Turkish parents of children aged 0-4 years. The results indicate, for instance, that parents who implemented the safety behaviour reported that safety behaviour had become habitual to them.