An Open Access article published in the Health Behavior and Policy Review Journal.
Authors:
Leslie Bloom, MS, CCRA, CMPP
Leily Saadat-Lajevardi, MSEd, MBA
Andrew Myers, MD
Mary Kathryn Malone, MEd, MBA
Objective:
Evaluations of the OTC Medicine Safety program confirm that safety knowledge gaps significantly improve after one exposure. We evaluated students’ knowledge throughout the school year.
Methods:
Twenty participating schools administered quizzes to measure students’ safety knowledge. Ten test schools implemented the program and measured baseline knowledge, and at 1 week, 10 weeks, and 8 months. Ten control schools administered quizzes using a similar timeline. Following quiz completion, control schools implemented the program.
Results:
At baseline, students had 43.5% correct answers. One week later, test students increased 27.1 points (p < .001), statistically higher than control students (-2.2 points, p < .001). Ten weeks after participation, test students’ remained improved (+23.6 points, p < .001), significantly higher than control students (-0.3 point, p < .001). At 8 months, test students’ remained higher than baseline (+25.5 points, p < .001), and significantly higher than control students (+1.06 points, p < .001). We found statistically significant improvement over time in urban schools, low socioeconomic (SES) schools, grades 5 and 6, and between boys and girls.
Conclusions:
OTC Medicine Safety improved students’ short- and long-term knowledge of safe practices with similar results across school type, SES setting, minority enrollment, grade, and sex.
Source: Health Behavior and Policy Review, Volume 12, Number 2, June 2025, pp. 34-49(16)
Publisher: Paris Scholar Publishing Ltd.
Article Link: https://doi.org/10.14485/HBPR.12.2.4