Educational strategies for preventing accidents in childhood: a systematic review

Accidents in childhood have a high morbidity and mortality rate and are often preventable, which reinforces the importance of educational measures to prevent unintentional injuries. This study aimed to identify and describe useful educational strategies for preventing childhood accidents in communities. This systematic review was guided by PRISMA (2020) and registered on the PROSPERO platform (ID: CRD42024500956). A search strategy was developed by combining the descriptors "Accident Prevention", "Child", and "Health Education" with the Boolean operator AND, applied to the PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, LILACS, and SciELO databases. A total of 5,037 studies were located, including observational articles published from 2018 to 2023, with children aged 0-12 years and/or their parents/caregivers. The quality of the studies was assessed based on the Qualitative Studies Checklist and the Research Triangle Institute Item Bank instruments. The bibliographic sample consisted of 30 articles, mostly classified as high quality, with a population of 4,510 adults and 54,190 children from various countries. Educational strategies for accident prevention were described, aimed at parents and guardians, children, and both. This review, addressing innovative educational strategies for preventing childhood accidents, highlights playful approaches for children and visual methods for caregivers. Implementation faces challenges related to evaluation and socioeconomic factors, making rigorous criteria and prolonged follow-ups important for continuous effectiveness.