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Guide
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for Children and Youth
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SAFE TEEN WORK PROJECT
OVERVIEW
The Safe Teen Work Project was designed to reduce the occurrence of cutting injuries that are commonly experienced by adolescent grocery store employees. The program consisted of supplying grocery store workers with new, safer case-cutters, and providing a short employee training on the safe handling and use of case-cutters. An experimental evaluation shows that injuries decreased more in stores that participated in the full program than in stores that participated in some or none of the program services; it is not known by what rate injuries decreased for adolescents, specifically.
DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM
Target population
Adolescents employed at grocery stores
The Safe Teen Work Project was designed to reduce the occurrence of cutting injuries among adolescents employed at grocery stores (Banco, Lapidus, Monopoli, & Zavoski, 1997). Cutting injuries are common among adolescents who use case-cutters in their work at grocery or general merchandise establishments. Stores who implemented the program received new, safer case-cutters and a 15-minute employee training on the safe handling and use of the case-cutters.
EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM
Evaluated population
Employees of grocery stores in Connecticut; age of participants was not limited to adolescents.
Nine stores of a single grocery chain in Connecticut were randomly assigned to one of three conditions. Three stores received new, safer case-cutters and a 15-minute employee training regarding safe handling and use of the case-cutters. A second group of stores did not receive safer case-cutters, but received a 15-minute employee training in safe handling of the equipment. The third group of stores did not receive safer case-cutters or safety training. Store logs provided data on lacerations during a period spanning two years before and one year after the intervention. According to these data, stores that received new equipment along with employee training saw a larger decline in the rate of laceration injuries than did stores in the other two experimental conditions. Moreover, a cost-effectiveness analysis suggests that the program is very cost effective, as those stores that received new equipment and benefited from employee training experienced net savings.
There are two important caveats to consider when interpreting these findings. While 31% of employees injured during this time were younger than 20 years of age, the ages of injured workers spanned from 16 to 78 years. Thus, although the program was targeted to adolescent workers, the program effect was not evaluated for adolescent workers alone. Additionally, the analysis did not include a measure of statistical precision.
SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION
References
Banco, L., Lapidus, G., Monopoli, J., & Zavoski, R. (1997). The Safe Teen Work Project: A study to reduce cutting injuries among young and inexperienced workers. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 31, 619-622.
Program also discussed in the following Child Trends publication(s):
Hatcher, J. L., & Scarpa, J. (2001). Background for community-level work on physical health and safety in adolescence: Reviewing the literature on contributing factors. Washington, DC: Child Trends.
Program information last updated 12/31/01.
