Child Occupant Restraint Use Campaign and Reasons for Non-use on a Southwestern

Native American Reservation

IHS IP Program Development Fellowship 2005

Stephen R. Piontkowski

June 8, 2006

Overview

• Background

• Methods

• Results

• Discussion

• Conclusions/Recommendations

Background

• MVCs 2nd leading cause of injury and injury death

• <8.5% child safety seats use (2005)

• Few local tribal programs distribute child safety seats to parents of infants and children 3-5 years of age

• A need remained for child occupant protection

Background

Project Goals:

Increase child safety seat use by 20% among children enrolled at a local child care center

Identify barriers to child occupant restraint use

Methods – Child Care Center

• Observational surveys

• Staff training

• Parent training

Methods – Child Care Center

• Student training– Buckle Bear

• Child safety seat distribution

Methods – Barriers to Use

• Focus groups and key informant interviews

– determine knowledge and attitudes associated with child occupant restraint use

– determine potential effective methods of marketing the importance of child occupant restraint use

Results – Child Care Center

• 15 staff attended SNAP

• 12 staff trained to conduct observation surveys & Buckle Bear

• 9 parents trained in class

• 17 seats distributed

Occupant Restraint Use at Local Child Care Center in a Native American Community in the Southwestern United States Before and After an Occupant Restriant Use Education and Distribution

Campaign

59

38

6

23

33 32

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Child Restraint Pre-Intervention

Child Restraint Post-Intervention

Adult OccupantRestraint Pre-Intervention

Adult OccupantRestraint Post-

Intervention

All OccupantRestraints Pre-

Intervention

All OccupantRestraints Post-

Intervention

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se

Results – Barriers to Use

• Two focus groups– Parents/childcare providers

– 1 group met at night and 1 during noon hr

– 12 participants (1 male, 8 parents, 4 grandparents)

– 21-62 years old

Results – Barriers to Use

• Key informant interviews– 13 informants– PD, EMS, Tribal Council (5), school district

administration, housing office, Head Start, WIC, Health Education, PHN

– In their current positions 2-24 years – Interviews lasted 10-35 minutes

Results – Barriers to Use

• Barriers to child occupant restraint use

Lack of enforcement of the child safety seat law

“If I got a ticket, I would have gotten a car seat. I think we need better examples, even our own Tribal Police, there is no enforcement.”

Public’s lack of understanding of the importance of child safety seats

“[people are] lazy. To me it seems like they don’t care attitude…lets get in and go…they don’t see the importance in it”

Results – Barriers to Use

• Knowledge and Attitudes

– Buckling up keeps children safe from injury and under control (not a distraction to driver)

– Kids should ride in the back seat

– Not sure what the law is or if there is one

– Knew where to obtain child car seats and information from local programs

Results – Barriers to Use

• Potential marketing methods

– More classes (when cited for violation, pre-natal)

– Personal experiences from local people

– Messages from children

– Incentives for use

– More car seat clinics/checkpoints

– Show car seat videos in public places

Discussion

• Attitudes at the Child Care Center demonstrated what was being stated in the focus groups and key informant interviews…– Child safety seats are not viewed as important

because people do not understand the consequences of unrestrained passengers in a motor vehicle crash

Conclusions/Recommendations

• Continue the child safety seat intervention at the Child Care Center– Include components that ensure the Center’s

cooperation and detailed involvement in the project (e.g. written agreement that details the roles and responsibilities of each group involved)

Conclusions/Recommendations

• Make the existing child occupant restraint law more stringent

• Increase enforcement of that law

• Develop an enhanced public awareness campaign on the importance of child occupant restraint use

• Ensure the provision child safety seats is sustained

Acknowledgements

• Gordon Tsatoke

• Kenny Hicks

• Jon Peabody

• Christine Reede

• Gilbert Patino

• Larry Berger

• David Wallace

Child Occupant Restraint Use Campaign and Reasons for Non-use on a Southwestern

Native American Reservation

IHS IP Program Development Fellowship 2005

Stephen R. Piontkowski

June 8, 2006