Risk Elimination on Walks to School (REmWAlkS)

步行上学的风险消除 (REmWAlkS)

• 批准号: MR/W004348/1
• 负责人: Margaret Peden
• 金额: $ 18.86万
• 依托单位: Imperial College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FW004348%2F1
• 关键词: Risk; Elimination; Walks; REmWAlkS

Every child has the right to an education and the best start in life. A safe and clean journey to school is the least they should expect. However, many children lose their lives or sustain long-lasting health problems as a result of unsafe and unclean journeys to school. More than 350,000 children around their world lose their lives to road traffic crashes and traffic-related air pollutants every year, with 93% of these children living in low- or middle-income countries. Children walking to school are at particular risk as they often walk along congested, unsafe roads with vehicles travelling at high speeds and emitting high levels of pollutants. School are also frequently located along busy highways. While some work is being conducted in African countries around making the journey to school safer for school children, none, to our knowledge are addressing the issue of both road safety and air pollution despite some overlapping interventions.This study therefore aims to develop a set of interventions, through a novel participatory approach, that would reduce both the risk of injury and exposure to poor air quality for children who walk to school in Blantyre, Malawi. The current road traffic death rate in Malawi is 31 per 100,000 population - one of the highest in the world and the levels of fine particulate matter are at least twice the level recommended by WHO. Pedestrian injuries, particularly among children, have seen a dramatic increase in the last decade and account for more than half of children admitted to hospital as a result of a collision.There are a number of interventions, following the Safe Systems Approach, that we know reduce pedestrian injuries and deaths and are promoted by WHO through their Save LIVE package of road safety interventions. Some of these interventions, most notably vehicle speed reduction and vehicle emission policies, have a dual impact on safety and air pollution. This study will build on a NIHR-funded Children's Air Pollution Profiles in Africa study which is also being conducted in Blantyre, Malawi, and will obtain air pollution data (and GPS coordinates) from children walking to school. We will use a mixed methods approach to better understand the risks that children who walk to schools in Blantyre, Malawi, experience and how these can best be ameliorated. We will engage all children aged 12-16 years from 4 purposefully sampled schools and select 16 children to photographically document the risks they encounter on their walk to school using PhotoVoice methodology. Discussion groups will be held with children their parents and teachers to further understand their challenges and ideas about how these can be remedied. We will use a Delphi process with local and international experts to prioritize interventions which we will then take to parents/teachers to discuss acceptability. Due to the many overlapping causal factors linking road safety and personal air pollution exposure, there are significant opportunities for complementary mitigation measures driving improvements in child health, safety and well-being. The interventions proposed through this study therefore have significant implications for other low- and middle-income countries who are encouraging non-motorized transport.

每个儿童都有受教育的权利和最好的人生开端。一个安全和干净的上学之旅是他们至少应该期待的。然而，许多儿童因上学途中不安全和不洁而丧生或长期存在健康问题。全世界每年有超过35万名儿童因道路交通事故和与交通有关的空气污染物而丧生，其中93%的儿童生活在低收入或中等收入国家。步行上学的儿童面临的风险尤其大，因为他们经常沿着拥挤、不安全的道路行走，车辆高速行驶，排放大量污染物。学校也经常位于沿着忙碌的高速公路。虽然非洲国家正在开展一些工作，使学童上学的旅程更加安全，但据我们所知，尽管有一些重叠的干预措施，但没有一项工作同时解决道路安全和空气污染问题。这将减少马拉维布兰太尔步行上学的儿童受伤和暴露在恶劣空气质量中的风险。马拉维目前的道路交通死亡率为每10万人31人，是世界上最高的死亡率之一，细颗粒物水平至少是世卫组织建议水平的两倍。行人受伤，特别是儿童受伤，在过去十年中急剧增加，在因碰撞而入院的儿童中占一半以上，我们知道，按照安全系统方法，有一些干预措施可以减少行人受伤和死亡，世卫组织通过其拯救生命一揽子道路安全干预措施加以推广。其中一些干预措施，特别是降低车速和车辆排放政策，对安全和空气污染产生双重影响。这项研究将以国家人权研究所资助的《非洲儿童空气污染概况》研究为基础，该研究也正在马拉维的布兰太尔进行，并将从步行上学的儿童那里获得空气污染数据（和全球定位系统坐标）。我们将采用混合方法，更好地了解马拉维布兰太尔步行上学的儿童所经历的风险，以及如何最好地改善这些风险。我们将邀请来自4所有目的抽样学校的所有12-16岁的儿童，并选择16名儿童使用PhotoVoice方法来记录他们步行上学时遇到的风险。将与儿童、家长和教师举行讨论小组，以进一步了解他们的挑战和如何补救的想法。我们将与当地和国际专家一起使用德尔菲程序来确定干预措施的优先次序，然后我们将把这些干预措施交给家长/教师，讨论其可接受性。由于道路安全和个人空气污染暴露之间存在许多相互重叠的因果因素，因此有很大的机会采取补充缓解措施，推动改善儿童健康、安全和福祉。因此，通过本研究提出的干预措施对鼓励非机动化运输的其他低收入和中等收入国家具有重要意义。