An interventional study of Young First Aiders Traing of Early Secondry School children in Trauma/Injury Problem, sponsored by University of Buea. Completed at 1 site in Cameroon. Open to participants aged 10 Years to 65 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-21.
Sponsored by University of Buea · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention
To save lives, alleviate pain, and prevent injuries from worsening before medical assistance can be summoned, first aid is essential. These fundamental skills are accessible to everyone, including young people. Worldwide, first aid training has consistently improved outcomes and reduced injury-related complications. Although first aid training for adults is widely available, it is equally important to equip young people in schools with these skills so they can defend themselves and support their communities.
'Young First Aiders' (YoFA) is a youth-specific first aid program that is the subject of this study, to be conducted in the Fako Division, Cameroon. Its primary goals are to:
The investigator will use a mixed-methods approach for the study in the Tiko and Buea health districts. It entails gathering extensive data via:
Focused group discussions, surveys, interviews, and scenario observations. To enable a direct comparison of results, one district will act as the intervention group and receive the YoFA training, while the other will act as the control group. To obtain a variety of viewpoints on the program, researchers will interview a large number of participants, including parents, educators, students, and administrators. Participants will complete customized surveys, which will be analyzed using Dedoose and R software to examine qualitative data from observations and interviews.
Expectations of this study include: Identifying barriers to making first aid instruction for children 10 to 14 years old successful, creating solutions to deal with these issues that have been identified. Moreover, to see if YoFA participants' first aid skills have improved, including their capacity to stay safe in an emergency, call for help, and offer prompt assistance (such as halting potentially fatal bleeding).
All this, to increase youth access to first aid training, which will help them develop a culture of readiness and self-assurance in managing crises as they get older; hence building a growing first aid culture to handle prehospital care.
PROBLEM STATEMENT Due to its limited inclusion in medical and educational curricula, first aid (FA) knowledge and practice are severely lacking, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Cameroon. According to WHO data, the majority of schools do not have operational dispensaries, and there is a serious shortage of medical personnel. Improvements in school health facilities have not kept up with the rise in student enrollment, and there are insufficient systems in place for referring students to medical facilities. It is essential to increase FA awareness among teachers and students, who are frequently the first to respond to incidents. FA skills can be improved and formal training may be encouraged in the future by implementing programs like YoFA with continuous refresher courses.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES General Objective
Specific Objectives
To understand the perspectives of stakeholders (school teachers, administrators, parents, community leaders and students) on a school-based FA training (YoFA) program among SSC.
Hypothesis 1: The perspectives of stakeholders like school administrators, teachers, parents, community leaders, and school children needs to be understood to design a comprehensive YoFA program
To assess school children's Knowledge, Attitudes (willingness to) and Practices (self-efficacy) (KAP) on trauma/injury FA via the built YoFA training to stop LTBs.
Hypothesis 2: School children have limited knowledge, self-efficacy and practices regarding trauma/injury FA
To evaluate the effectiveness and usability of the YoFA training program for SSC to respond to LTBs safely and promptly in their environs.
Hypothesis 3: The YoFA training Program is effective in improving the KAP of SSC and it is usable within the school and community setting.
Hypothesis 4: There exist some barrier/challenges in implementing a YoFA training program in secondary schools.
METHODOLOGY
STUDY AREA:
The Southwest region is one of the two (2) English speaking regions of the 10 regions in Cameroon. These regions have been in some socio-political crises for seven (7) years now and there have been an increase in road traffic crashes and injuries for which prehospital care would have helped. But the absence of it and worsening of road conditions calls for more action geared towards prehospital care than not. The investigators saw this need and decided to build a first aid culture starting from the young. Fako division is one of the most accessible divisions due to the conflict in the Southwest with four (4) health districts; Buea, Limbe, Tiko and Muyuka. The Buea and Tiko Health Districts will be selected based on the district with the highest number of trauma cases recorded in the DHIS2 and the security situation within the region.
The highest number of trauma from 2020 to 2023 were 488,494,375, and 1281 for Buea Limbe, Muyuka and Tiko respectively. After Tiko, although Limbe is the next district with the next highest number of trauma and injury cases after Tiko, the investigators took Buea to avoid the confounding effects of the Lay First-responders (LFR) program taking place in Limbe
Study population:
The study population includes various stakeholders for the qualitative part, such as teachers, parents, school administrators and students in Buea and Tiko. The cross-sectional survey and intervention will focus on early secondary school students (Forms 1-3) aged 10-14, who are transitioning from primary school. The evaluation will involve students to assess the program's impact, challenges, and the need for refresher courses STUDY DESIGN A mixed-methods exploratory sequential approach, incorporating both quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews.
Qualitative part:
The investigator and trained research assistants will do focused group discussions (FGDs) with parents, teachers, school administrators and students in groups of 5 to 12. From those, 2 other participants per group will be interviewed in-depth (IDIs). All these FGDs and IDIs will take place within the school campuses.
Quantitative Part:
The quantitative aspect will take part within the school campuses and involve administering questionnaires to students to assess their knowledge, attitudes (confidence), and practices (utilization/usability) of FA trauma/injury skills before and after their training. This will focus mostly on staying safe, calling for help and stopping a life-threatening bleed. The intervention will include training the intervention group in reasonable clusters of 15 to 20 students per group for 2.5 hours per day for 2 days in 2 weeks. Following this, a biweekly follow up will be performed with physical reminders of the group of students. The control will have no intervention.
The students will be trained within the school premises on Wednesdays, given that they have school half days then. The student participants will be followed up for 3 months after the main training sessions.
Sample Size Calculation Calculated at 134 participants for both the intervention and control groups (67) per group.
All assumptions considered are seen in the main protocol.
128 studies on the registry are indexed under Accidental Injuries; 39 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 166 is above the median of 110 across 67 interventional studies indexed under Accidental Injuries.
Browse Accidental Injuries studies →University of Buea is the lead sponsor of 5 studies on the registry; 1 is open to participants now.
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For the Qualitative part
Exclusion Criteria:
Two arms have already been described. The control group will be observed with no intervention.
Other: Young First Aiders Traing of Early Secondry School children
Training Young First Aiders in Early Secondary School Children with a pre-, immediate post- and final post-tests to determine knowledge change.
Overall Change in Knowledge on Injury and Trauma First Aid
We assessed knowledge of injuries and first aid using the same 24-question survey at baseline and at the end of the intervention period. We calculated the number of correct answers and converted them into a percentage score between 0% and 100%. A high score indicates a good outcome because more first aid knowledge has been acquired, while a low score indicates a poor outcome because little first aid knowledge has been acquired. We also assessed the intervention group after 3 months to evaluate knowledge retention.
Time frame: Baseline (Pretest) and 2 weeks (Immediate posttest)
Retention of Injury and Trauma First Aid Knowledge at 3 Months
First aid knowledge retention was assessed among intervention participants using the same 24-item knowledge questionnaire administered previously. Correct responses were converted to a percentage score ranging from 0% to 100%. Higher scores indicate greater retained first aid knowledge and a better outcome.
Time frame: 3 months after the intervention
Usability and Acceptability of the First-Aid Training Program
We measured usability and acceptance of the first aid training program using a modified 10-question System Usability Scale (SUS). Respondents were asked to rate their opinions on each question on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Standard methods of scoring SUS questionnaires imply that the responses to positively stated questions must be subtracted from 1, whereas negatively stated questions are scored as 5 minus the response. After summing the adjusted scores, the result was multiplied by 2.5 to produce a total SUS score from 0 to 100. Scores above 68 may serve as a benchmark of average usability. Higher numbers indicate higher perceived usability and acceptance of the training program, whereas lower values indicate poor perceived usability and acceptance. We administered the SUS questionnaire only to respondents in the intervention group who received the evaluated training program.
Time frame: At the end of the intervention (3-months after)
Participants were recruited from four government secondary schools in Fako Division, Cameroon, between December 2024 and February 2025. Eligible students in Forms 1-3 who met the inclusion criteria and provided parental consent and participant assent were enrolled.
| Milestone | Intervention | Control |
|---|---|---|
| Started | 86 | 80 |
| Completed | 81 | 78 |
| Not completed | 5 | 2 |
We assessed knowledge of injuries and first aid using the same 24-question survey at baseline and at the end of the intervention period. We calculated the number of correct answers and converted them into a percentage score between 0% and 100%. A high score indicates a good outcome because more first aid knowledge has been acquired, while a low score indicates a poor outcome because little first aid knowledge has been acquired. We also assessed the intervention group after 3 months to evaluate knowledge retention.
| percentage poins | Intervention Group | Control |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline (Pretest) | 47.5 ± 9.2 | 46.6 ± 9.0 |
| Immediate Posttest (2weeks) | 61.0 ± 8.5 | 50.4 ± 10.5 |
First aid knowledge retention was assessed among intervention participants using the same 24-item knowledge questionnaire administered previously. Correct responses were converted to a percentage score ranging from 0% to 100%. Higher scores indicate greater retained first aid knowledge and a better outcome.
| Percent | Intervention |
|---|---|
| Retention of Injury and Trauma First Aid Knowledge at 3 Months | 71.3 ± 9.3 |
We measured usability and acceptance of the first aid training program using a modified 10-question System Usability Scale (SUS). Respondents were asked to rate their opinions on each question on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Standard methods of scoring SUS questionnaires imply that the responses to positively stated questions must be subtracted from 1, whereas negatively stated questions are scored as 5 minus the response. After summing the adjusted scores, the result was multiplied by 2.5 to produce a total SUS score from 0 to 100. Scores above 68 may serve as a benchmark of average usability. Higher numbers indicate higher perceived usability and acceptance of the training program, whereas lower values indicate poor perceived usability and acceptance. We administered the SUS questionnaire only to respondents in the intervention group who received the evaluated training program.
| Percent | Intervention |
|---|---|
| Usability and Acceptability of the First-Aid Training Program | 70.1 ± 12.7 |
Collected over Not applicable; as adverse events were not systematically monitored or assessed during the study.. Non-serious events are listed at a 0% frequency threshold.
| Group | Deaths | Serious | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intervention | — | — | — |
| Control | — | — | — |
A total of 166 participants completed the baseline assessment, including 86 in the intervention group and 80 in the control group. Seven participants lacked complete data for the subsequent outcome analysis and were therefore excluded from the primary outcome analysis. The primary outcome analysis included 159 participants (81 in the intervention group and 78 in the control group).
| Age, Categorical(Participants) | Intervention | Control | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| <=18 years | 86 | 80 | 166 |
| Between 18 and 65 years | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| >=65 years | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sex: Female, Male(Participants) | Intervention | Control | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 41 | 40 | 81 |
| Male | 45 | 40 | 85 |
| Race and Ethnicity Not Collected(Participants) | Intervention | Control | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Count of participants | — | — | 0 |
| Previous First Aid Training(Participants) | Intervention | Control | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Count of participants | 36 | 31 | 67 |
| Class/Form(Participants) | Intervention | Control | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Form 1 | 24 | 24 | 48 |
| Form 2 | 27 | 27 | 54 |
| FORM 3 | 35 | 29 | 64 |
PDFs hosted by the registry, ClinicalTrials.gov.
Plan to share: Yes — All IPD that underlie result
Supporting information: Study protocol, Informed consent form
Time frame: January 2025 to January 2026
Access criteria: Leaders of the scientific review committee for the journal that will be responsible for publishing results of the study. They will be able to access consent forms and questionnaires used for data collection upon sending a request to the PI for this information using the link that will be provided.
Data sharing details ↗ · drive.google.com
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