653 The Power of Words: Leveraging Messaging to Prevent Injuries and Save Lives
Rebecca Coffey, Karla Klas, Daniel Chacon

TL;DR
This paper introduces an evidence-based tool to evaluate and improve safety messages for injury prevention, particularly in fire and burn safety.
Contribution
The paper presents a new methodology and user-friendly tool (IMPAC-Tool) for evaluating and enhancing safety messaging.
Findings
90% of pilot test participants found the tool helpful for evaluating and improving safety messages.
Half of the messages scored poorly in quality, prompting revisions to be more action-focused and inclusive.
The IMPAC-Tool was publicly launched in Fall 2023 and received additional responses from injury prevention fields.
Abstract
Organizations frequently disseminate safety messaging to convey crucial injury prevention information. However, a systematic evaluation of these messages for accuracy, relevance, clarity, accessibility, and efficacy is often lacking or conducted with insufficient rigor. To address this gap, a national group of subject matter experts (SMEs) from diverse fields collaborated to develop an evidence-based methodology and simple user-friendly tool for evaluating burn prevention and fire safety messages. In 2021, eleven SMEs gathered under a FEMA-funded two-year grant project. Extensive reviews were conducted of medical, prevention, behavioral science, psychology, public health, and education literature to compile key findings and approaches. The identified components of evidence-informed effective messaging were utilized to create an online messaging reference guide and a 29-question…
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Taxonomy
TopicsMedia, Religion, Digital Communication
