Knowledge and attitudes toward stroller safety among parents and student designers

Background

Injuries of young children caused by strollers account for the major part of infant furniture-related injuries. Many studies indicate that safety product design and parents' knowledge of using strollers are two important factors to reduce the occurrence of infant furniture-related injuries. Therefore, the objects of this study are (1) to investigate parents and student designers' stroller safety knowledge and attitude and (2) to identify the factors that influenced their knowledge and attitudes.

Method

Two questionnaires were used to investigate the knowledge and attitudes toward stroller safety among parents with children younger than three years old and college and graduate students studying in product design field.

Results

Among all qualities of a stroller, safety of the product is the most important concern for both parents and student designers. Parents have better knowledge but less positive attitudes toward stroller safety than student designers. While parents' knowledge and attitudes are affected by the readability of product manuals, there is no significant variable related to student designers' knowledge and attitudes. Parents' knowledge of stroller safety not only comes from the manual but also from infant furniture sellers.

Conclusion

We found the product manuals have significant impact on promoting parents' knowledge and attitudes toward stroller safety. Thus, providing explicit product instructions is an essential part for product manufacturing. Since student designers do not have sufficient knowledge on injury prevention and stroller safety, we suggest that “injury prevention and safety promotion” should be included in their curriculum in future.

Key words: stroller, parents, student designers