Parents of 0–24-Month-Old Children Make High Rates of Dangerous Errors in Choking Hazard Detection Both Before and After Education

Choking is a widespread and potentially fatal risk for young children, but little research has evaluated how common educational interventions impact parents’ choking prevention skills. We evaluated the impact of two educational interventions on choking hazard detection among parents (n=66) of 0-to-24-month-olds. Before and after education, participants completed a naturalistic food preparation safety task (FPST) assessing meal safety based on food presentation. Participants were randomized to read a choking prevention pamphlet (n=32; pamphlet only) or read the pamphlet and watch a video modeling choking-safe food preparation (n=34; pamphlet+video). Pre-education, parents made dangerous errors on an average of 32.2% of trials. Dangerous errors decreased post-intervention (F=31.5, p<.001), with greater improvement in the pamphlet + video group (F=5.8, p=.019). FPST performance was moderately related to parents’ choking-specific and global parenting self-efficacy. Most parents expressed interest in additional education via various modalities. Results suggest pathways for developing and disseminating optimized choking prevention strategies.