Citation

Fong CK, Bilston L, Brown J. Traffic Injury Prev. 2016; 17(7): 758-762.

Affiliation

School of Medical Science, Wallace Wurth Building, University of New South Wales , Randwick NSW , 2052 , Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/15389588.2016.1142078

PMID

26890024

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Suboptimal child restraint use includes incorrect and/or inappropriate restraint use, and increases the risk of injury. Comfort has been suggested as an important factor impacting on optimal use of restraints by children. This paper aims to examine the relationships between parent reported comfort and restraint misuse and age appropriate restraint choice.

METHODS: This is an analysis of data from a cross sectional observation study of child restraint use in NSW. Logistic regression was used to model the relationship between parent reported comfort and restraint misuse and age appropriate restraint choice.

RESULTS: There was no significant relationship between either parent reported comfort and restraint misuse or parent reported comfort and age appropriate restraint choice.

CONCLUSIONS: Parent perceptions of comfort of children in child restraints do not appear to be associated with incorrect child restraint use, or age appropriate restraint choice. It is possible that the actual comfort of the child may be related to incorrect use but this remains to be tested. Further investigation of the relationship between parent perceived comfort and the actual comfort of the child, as well as the impact of child comfort on optimal child restraint use is warranted.

Language: en