TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2010//
TI  - Reliability and validity of child passenger safety restraint observations by community observers
JO  - Traffic injury prevention
A1  - Brixey, Suzanne N.
A1  - Guse, Clare E.
A1  - Gorelick, Marc H.
SP  - 573
EP  - 577
VL  - 11
IS  - 6
N2  - Objective: To compare the accuracy of trained community observers for direct observation of child passenger restraint use to certified child passenger safety technicians who are either professional observers or community-based technicians, and to compare these three groups with a gold standard. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of interobserver agreement and accuracy in which 75 photos of children depicted in different child passenger restraint systems were rated by 9 observers total, with 3 representing professional observers, 3 representing certified child passenger safety technicians, and 3 representing trained community observers. For each photo, observers indicated type of restraint; the appropriateness of the harness, if applicable; and overall appropriateness of the restraint. A gold standard was established by consensus agreement of 2 certified car seat technician instructors. Results: The sensitivity and specificity for trained community observers in identifying broad groupings of restraint types was good (78-100% sensitivity; 93-99% specificity), but they had low agreement with the gold standard for overall appropriateness of the child passenger restraints (kappa = 0.28). The community observer group was 42 percent less likely to code the photo depiction of appropriate restraint use as appropriate. Conclusion: Community trained observers do show good sensitivity and specificity for identifying the type of restraint but have a trend toward poorer judgment when determining harness appropriateness and overall appropriateness. They may be a cost-effective option for limited restraint identification.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1538-9588
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15389588.2010.508083
ID  - ref1
ER  -