Safety in SecondsTM is a smartphone app developed and tested through an NIH-funded randomized controlled trial (A. Gielen, PI). The app we developed is theory informed and walks users through a series of questions to assess both child passenger safety and home fire safety; educational messages are evidence-based and connect users to local resources. We tested the app by enrolling families seeking care in pediatric emergency departments in Little Rock, AK and Baltimore, MD. Results demonstrated the app’s utility in improving parent’s child passenger safety and fire safety knowledge and behaviors. Committed to broader dissemination of the tool, we partnered with a foundation to make the app available for both Apple and Android phones free of charge. Dissemination activities of both the research results and free resource include presentations at national and international pediatric, communication and injury control professional conferences and journal articles about the creation and evaluation of the Safety in SecondsTM program including one in Health Education Research (2015), A smart phone app to communicate child passenger safety: An application of theory to practice, and one in Injury Prevention (2017), Evaluating a smartphone application to improve child passenger safety and fire safety knowledge and behavior.
