The Economics of Prevention program includes a four year research component to explore and validate program effectiveness. Currently (summer 2010) we have have completed a preliminary analysis of data from two years of the four-year data set that specifically examines (1) the prevalence of exposure to and injuries from four agricultural-related hazards: tractor overturns, crush injuries, closed head trauma, and hearing loss; and (2) behavioral intentions to work safely as measured by a stages of change measure validated in a prior 3-year study.

The current study participants were pre-career college students enrolled in teacher preparation, agricultural economics or other college level courses at three universities in Kentucky, Mississippi, and Florida (N= 245 treatment/175 Control). These college students were trained in using interactive narrative simulations and economic cost tools that focus on injury risk, prevention, and cost analysis. After they graduate, students will apply what they have learned to teaching rural youth ages 15-19 who are at risk for rural and farming-related injuries.

The funded study design was an intervention/control repeated measures design. The study design approximates a randomized control-trials (RCT) experimental design. The control group is not truly randomly assigned to this condition, nor are the intervention group classes. By necessity the control students must be enrolled in the study prior to professors' use of any portion of the online program materials. The four subsequent intervention cohorts consist of those students enrolled in the College of Agriculture and College of Education courses over the four-year period. Nevertheless the study design does allow us to test the following multivariate and univariate hypotheses for differences in mean scores (M) as well as to calculate a wealth of descriptive statistics.