Evaluation of a farm safety day program: participants and non-participants over a one-year follow-up period.

Farm safety day programs are attended each year by thousands of children in rural communities. This evaluation of a national farm safety day program assessed changes in knowledge and reported behaviors among safety day participants, aged 8 to 13 years, and a comparison group of children who did not attend a safety day. The outcome evaluation involved a quasi-experimental design with participants and non-participants, measured with a pre-test, three-month telephone follow-up, and one-year telephone follow-up survey. The study included 621 children from a sample of 28 safety days administered throughout North America and 413 non-participants recruited from the same or nearby communities. The survey instruments measured participants’ knowledge of safety hazards, knowledge of appropriate safety behaviors, and current practices with regard to safety behaviors. While both participants and non-participants showed improved safety knowledge and safe behavior scores over time, there were significantly greater increases in knowledge and behaviors for the safety day participants than for the non-participants. Improvements occurred for all age levels and were sustained through the one-year follow-up assessment. This study contributes to the body of evidence that such safety programs can have a long-term effect on the knowledge and safe practices of children who attend them.