BASE: Pragmatic Injury Prevention for Practitioners

Abstract

Unintentional injury remains a leading health problem in developed nations, making injury prevention imperative. Practitioners are primary stakeholders in the injury prevention process but rarely can devote significant time to complicated prevention efforts. Furthermore, theory-based approaches to support injury prevention are less common than atheoretical approaches. We propose a simple method for injury prevention grounded in concepts found in antecedent models. Barriers, attitudes, social context, and environmental factors (or BASE) are suggested as a simple injury prevention model practitioners can follow when working with patients. We present each component of BASE and offer examples of how the approach can be applied to risk factors associated with several types of injury risk behavior.