Testing a Training Program That Uses Virtual Reality Technology to Improve Children's Pedestrian Behaviors: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Detailed Summary

Motor vehicle pedestrian injury is a critical issue for school children.1-4 Each year in the US, over 4900 pedestrians are killed and another 207,000 are injured, and about 25% of these pedestrian events involve school-age children. This research focuses on 7-8 year olds, who constitute a high-risk group for pedestrian injury. At these ages children regularly cross streets without supervision and they struggle both with selecting where to cross and determining how to cross. Research has shown, however, that children are capable of benefiting from effective behavioral training in pedestrian behavior. The proposed research addresses the issue of crossing skills deficits and will: (1) implement a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test two alternative training programs to teach 7-8 year-olds where and how to cross streets safely; and (2) conduct an economic analysis to reveal cost:benefit indices for both. Meta-analyses of pedestrian training programs reveal that behavioral training in a traffic environment most reliably produces some degree of improvement in crossing skills. Thus, 'street-side training' is often described as the gold standard. Implementation, however, poses many practical problems related to implementation. The investigators have addressed this issue by developing a training system that uses a virtual pedestrian environment and extends past VR systems by having children fully cross the street and offering the unique capability of teaching both where and how to cross, with skills in each domain measured separately so exactly what is learned and what component crossing behaviors improved can be precisely determined for each individual child. Children (7-8 years) will be randomized to one of three groups (balanced for sex): street-side training, virtual-reality training, and a no-intervention control, with the same pre- and post- measures taken across groups. Primary analyses will test for changes in indices of where and how to cross, as well as attention to traffic when crossing. An economic analysis of the two programs will reveal their relative cost effectiveness. These results will provide essential knowledge to inform future decisions about 'best practices' in child pedestrian injury prevention through behavioral training.

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Interventions