229043 Drivers with a Child Passenger are more at Risk for Injury than their child Passenger Due Driver not Wearing Seatbelt

Monday, November 8, 2010

Owen Johnson, DrPH , Department of Health Administration and Health Sciences, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN
Terri Foxx, DrPH , Department of Health Administration and Health Sciences, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN
Elizabeth Brown, PhD , Department of Health Administration and Health Sciences, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN
Adrian Samuels, PhD , Urban Affairs, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN
Krystal Massey , College of Health Sciences, Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN
Child and Driver safety is a public health concern among minority and low income communities. Research shows that motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death among children in the United States. Although it is suggested that proper restraints have been shown to reduce the number of fatalities in the event of an accident, there is still a significant number of adults from minority and low income communities who do not properly retrain their children and, or do not restrain themselves in a vehicle. Based on a previous Children Are Restrained for Enhanced Safety (C.A.R.E.S.) study/observations it was noted that parent were securing their children passengers however, drivers/parent was observed to not wearing seatbelts. As a follow-up, a pilot study (survey) was conducted to determine why there was an inconsistency of behavior for adults and their willingness to put themselves at increase risk of injury but not their children passengers. The survey was distributed to minority and low income communities. From the drivers surveyed fourteen percent reported they did not wear seat belts all the time during the last 30 days while eight percent were not aware that Tennessee State Law requires mandatory safety belt utilization. Additionally, twenty two percent of drivers did not restrain themselves all the time which is a public health concern. Therefore some educational/prevention intervention is needed to target this population of minority and low income drivers to address the need for driver safety seat belt usage to decrease the risk of injury.

Learning Objectives:
1. Summarize/Analyze survey to identify probable causes/reason why drivers who have children passengers often will ensure proper seatbelt or child restraint of their child passenger but will themselves go unrestrained. 2. Based on the indentified causes/reasons designed appropriate education/prevention intervention to increase seatbelt use of parents and drivers of children passengers.

Keywords: Safety, Risk Factors

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I conducted the research
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.