 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Erin Griffin, MA1, Lisa Hershey, MPH1, and Roger Trent, PhD2. (1) Epidemiology and Prevention for Injury Control, California Department of Health Services, 611 North 7th Street, Suite C, Sacramento, CA 95814-0208, 916 324-1608, egriffi2@dhs.ca.gov, (2) Injury Surveillance and Epidemiology Section, EPIC Branch, California Department of Health Services, 611 N. 7th Street, MS 39A, P.O. Box 942732, Sacramento, CA 94234-7320
The California Department of Health Services (DHS) received a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety funding seven SAFE KIDS coalitions to conduct grassroots programs designed to increase booster seat use in their communities. The major goals of the Give Kids a Boost! project were to a) conduct community-based interventions to increase booster seat use among children too large for child safety seats but too small for seat belts, b) develop an observational survey protocol to collect consistent, accurate, and representative data on booster seat use within a local area, and c) evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions.
Seven local projects collected data before and after implementation of the “6 years or 60 pounds” enhancement to California’s child restraint law, with program interventions occurring simultaneously with statewide enforcement and education efforts. Overall, booster seat use among 4-7 year-old children increased from 26% during at the pre-intervention survey to 46% at the post-intervention survey. There was significant variation related to driver race, vehicle type, and whether the driver was aware of changes to the child restraint law.
The Give Kids a Boost! model may be adopted by local traffic-related injury prevention programs as an example of how to sucessfully implement and evaluate booster seat education and outreach efforts. Although study findings, based on a convenience sample of approximately 900 children, cannot be used to estimate population-based usage rates, it is clear that many California parents are getting the message to Give Kids a Boost!
Learning Objectives:
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.