Assessment of an educational dog bites prevention program (PAB) in French-speaking Switzerland

Abstract

Children are particularly concerned by dog bites, many of them are bitten in familiar situations and theirs wounds are generally serious. Current preventive measures are mainly targeted on control and restriction of dogs, and not on the population at risk. This research assesses, by means of a questionnaire (Q-PAM), an educational dog bites prevention program with 92 pupils in first and second elementary school grades. The pupils were also filmed in several at risk situations. Several independent variables were considered. Results reveal that the prevention program has significant positive effects on knowledge of the pupils who followed it, and this still a month after the intervention. No other independent variable seems to influence these results.