Injury prevention counseling by pediatricians: a benefit-cost comparison.

OBJECTIVES The American Academy of Pediatrics believes that health education, through office-based counseling, can contribute to childhood injury prevention. This report extends previously published work on the effectiveness of primary care-based counseling and compares the costs and estimated monetary value of the benefits of safety counseling targeting children ages 0 to 4 years. METHODS We estimate the savings achievable with comprehensive childhood injury prevention counseling organized around the three Framingham Safety Surveys used in The Injury Prevention Program (TIPP) developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. We verify the estimated savings by comparing them with the effects of pediatrician counseling from separate analyses of the most fully evaluated interventions--in child motor vehicle occupant injuries, burns, and falls. RESULTS TIPP pediatrician injury counseling sessions between the ages of 0 and 4 years can achieve estimated savings of $880 per child or $80 per visit. If all 19.2 million children ages 0 to 4 years completed TIPP, we estimate that $230 million would be saved annually in medical spending, and injury costs would decline $3.4 billion. each dollar spent on TIPP childhood injury prevention targeting children ages 0 to 4 years returns nearly $13. CONCLUSION TIPP pediatrician injury counseling is a cost-effective method of preventing childhood injuries and should be more widely adopted.