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Grandparents a safe source of childcare
Newswise — For working parents, having
grandparents as caregivers can cut the risk
of childhood injury roughly in half,
according to a new study by researchers from
the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health. Compared to organized daycare or
care by the mother or other relatives,
having a grandmother watch a child was
associated with a decreased risk of injury
for the child.
The study is among the first to examine the
relationship between grandparents’ care and
childhood injury rates.
The results are published in the November
2008 issue of Pediatrics.
In addition to source of caregiving,
researchers examined the connections between
family structure and the likelihood of
injury.
According to the researchers, the odds of
injury were significantly greater among
children whose parents never married
compared with children whose mothers stayed
married throughout the child’s life.
Similarly, odds of injury were greater for
children living in homes in which the father
did not co-reside. These associations were
independent of family income.
“Recent growth in the number of grandparents
providing childcare has some observers
concerned they don’t adhere to modern safety
practices,” said lead study author David
Bishai, MD, PhD, MPH, a professor with the
Bloomberg School’s Department of Population,
Family and Reproductive Health.
“To the contrary, this research tells us not
only is there no evidence to support this
assumption, but families that choose
grandparents to care for their children
experience fewer child injuries.”
Bishai and colleagues analyzed data from the
National Evaluation of the Healthy Steps for
Young Children Program, which includes
information on over 5,500 newborns enrolled
in 15 U.S. cities in 1996-97 with follow-up
for 30-33 months.
Data
on child care arrangements reported by the
mother were linked to claims reporting
children’s office visits, allowing
researchers to identify medically attended
injuries.
“As injuries are the number one cause of
death for children in the United States,
it’s critical we continue to determine risk
and protective factors,” said study
co-author Andrea C. Gielen, ScD, ScM, a co-
author of the study and director of the
Center for Injury Research and Policy in the
Department of Health Policy and Management
at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“Additional
studies of how households choose relatives
to watch their children and the actual
caregiving style of grandparents are
warranted because the protective effect of
grandparents may depend on choosing the
right grandparent.”
Additional authors of “Risk Factors for
Unintentional Injuries in Children: Are
Grandparents Protective” are Jamie L.
Trevitt, MPP, Yiduo Zhang, PhD, Lara B.
McKenzie, PhD, Tama Leventhal, PhD, and
Bernard Guyer, MD, MPH.
The research was funded by a grant from the
Maternal and Child Health Bureau R40MC05475.
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