Empowering young people: evaluating the impact of KnifeSavers—a knife wound first aid and awareness intervention in England

Craven, J, Harris, J ORCID: 0000-0001-6584-1642, Carroll, P, Hargreaves, F, Russell, N, Misra, N and Quigg, Z ORCID: 0000-0002-7212-5852 (2026) Empowering young people: evaluating the impact of KnifeSavers—a knife wound first aid and awareness intervention in England. Journal of Public Health. ISSN 2198-1833

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Abstract

Aim
Interpersonal violence involving a knife or sharp weapon is a serious public health concern. KnifeSavers is a 2-hour
educational intervention delivered to school and college students in the Liverpool City Region (United Kingdom) in partnership
with the Liverpool Football Club Foundation (LFCF). It aims to educate young people about the impacts of knife
injury and equip them with the skills and confidence to control bleeding from a knife wound. This study aims to examine
the impacts of the intervention on young people’s knowledge of knife injury, attitudes towards knife carrying and confidence
assisting a victim.

Subject and methods
Surveys were administered to young people prior to (n = 110) and following the intervention (n = 72)
to measure knowledge of knife injury, attitudes towards knife carrying and confidence to assist a victim. Nonparametric tests
(Mann–Whitney U) were used to measure any significant changes. Thematic analysis of young people’s qualitative responses
captured the impact of the programme.

Results
There was a statistically significant increase in knowledge of knife injury risks (pre-mean = 5.9, post-mean = 7.7,
p < .001) and confidence in assisting a victim (pre-mean = 2.8, post-mean = 3.7, p < .001) post-intervention. Attitude towards
knife carrying showed no significant change (pre-mean = 19.7, post-mean = 20.3, p < .227).

Conclusion
The KnifeSavers programme had a positive impact on young people’s knowledge of knife injury and confidence
to support victims. Our study shows that collaborative interventions between medical professionals and prominent sporting organisations like LFCF can successfully engage young people in knife injury education.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	1117 Public Health and Health Services; Public Health; 4203 Health services and systems; 4206 Public health
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine R Medicine > RT Nursing
Divisions:	Public and Allied Health
Publisher:	Springer
Date of acceptance:	13 January 2026
Date of first compliant Open Access:	16 February 2026
Date Deposited:	16 Feb 2026 12:19
Last Modified:	16 Feb 2026 12:22
DOI or ID number:	10.1007/s10389-026-02688-1
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28103

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