Despite gains in child restraint use, many children still do not travel safely in cars. Physicians play a potentially important role in educating parents about appropriate travel practices and influencing their behaviour, although the evidence concerning how well they accomplish this is mixed. In the present study, telephone interviews were conducted with about 1,500 higher and lower income Caucasian, African American, and Hispanic primary caregivers. The majority of respondents (62 percent) said their physicians had never talked to them "about transporting your child safely in a car." A higher proportion of pediatricians compared with other physicians provided such information, although less than half did so. More higher income Caucasians reported such communications, primarily because more of their children went to see pediatricians, and pediatricians more often provided injury prevention counselling. Eighty percent of respondents said their physicians had never spoken to them about the dangers deploying airbags can pose to children in the front seats of vehicles. Respondents reported that their physicians were more likely to have discussed poisoning, bums, and fall prevention than car travel safety. Barriers to car travel safety communications by physicians, and how these barriers can be overcome, need to be examined. (Author/publisher)
Abstract