Car Seat Knowledge and Car Seat Use among Parents of Preschool Children in Bangkok, Thailand
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Abstract
Background: Road traffic accident is one of the leading causes of death in children. Appropriate car seat use can reduce the severity of injuries.
Objective: The aims of this study were to collect information on car seat use and to compare the knowledge of parents of preschoolers in Bangkok regarding road traffic safety for children including car seat use before and after receiving car seat brochure by using pretest and posttest questionnaires.
Methods: The pretest questionnaires were sent out to parents of preschoolers in 3 randomly selected schools and were collected 3 days later. Thereafter, the car seat brochures and the posttest questionnaires were sent to the parents and the questionnaires was collected back after 2 weeks.
Results: Of the 309 parents, 254 (82.2%) completed the pretests and 135 (43.7%) of them also completed the posttest questionnaires. Among 254 parents, most of them were female. All of them knew about car seat, mostly from the internet (73.2%) and relatives (40.6%). Among 233 parents who used car to take their children to school, 82.0% had ever used car seat but only 21.5% of them always used it. The most important reason for not using car seat was children’s refusal. The overall score of knowledge about car seat increased after receiving car seat brochure.
Conclusions: This study demonstrated that very few parents used car seat for every ride of their young children. Car seat brochure may increase knowledge but more strategies are needed to improve car seat use for child passenger safety.
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References
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