The first assessment of a dog bite prevention program for pre-school children in Turkey

Child safety around dogs is a serious public health concern, in particular in countries where free-ranging dogs and dog-mediated urban rabies are an issue, such as Turkey. The present study is the first to investigate the effectiveness of a dog bite prevention program in pre-school children in Turkey. In this study, pre-school students aged between 3 and 6 years (N = 117) received an interactive education program. The program consisted of an interactive oral presentation, a drama session ("Being a Tree"), and a practical session, i.e. meeting a dog. Two different questionnaires were administered to children before (PrE), immediately after (PE0), and one week after the program (PE1): (i) the Dog-Human Interaction questionnaire and (ii) the Contexts for Approaching Dogs questionnaire. Significant improvements in the scores in both questionnaires were found between the evaluations before and after the education. Moreover, older students had significantly higher scores in both questionnaires during PE0 and PE1. The majority of the students were found to be successful in the evaluation of the "Being a Tree" concept during PE0 and PE1. The results of this study show that the interactive dog bite prevention program can increase the awareness and knowledge of pre-school children on dog behavior. Findings also suggest that age should be considered when designing a dog bite education program. As being a tree concept can be learned by children from all age groups, it can be a useful and beneficial component of dog bite prevention programs in countries having a big population of free-ranging dogs. (c) 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.