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Assessing the Youth Safety Lab program through a health equity lens

injuryprev · 2025-12-30 · canonical JSON source

5 visible annotations · policy: published · automated confidence ≥ 75.00%

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Background Injury is the leading cause of death among youth in Canada. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Youth Safety Lab (YSL) programme in improving injury prevention knowledge and skills among high school students in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), with attention to equity across sociodemographic groups.Methods A retrospective longitudinal study involved 1805 students from over 50 high schools at three time points: before the programme, immediately after and 3 months later. The survey, based on the Health Action Process Approach, assessed five aspects related to injury prevention. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and regression analyses were used to examine changes and disparities in outcomes.Results Scores across all five sections showed significant improvement following the intervention, with the greatest gains observed in bleeding injury response. Black students were under-represented in follow-up participation, and female students exhibited greater improvements than male students in bleeding injury response, indicating potential disparities in engagement and outcomes.Conclusions The YSL programme effectively enhances injury prevention awareness among high school students in the GTA. However, disparities in participation and outcomes highlight the need for more inclusive and responsive injury prevention programmes.