A community-based case-control study is presented, which aimed to quantify the effect of adult accompaniment on the risk of pedestrian injury on the journey between school and home. The study population was all children aged 5-15 resident in the Auckland region of New Zealand. The study cases were the 54 children aged 5-15, who were admitted to hospital as a result of a pedestrian-motor vehicle collision on the school-home journey, between 1 January 1992 and 1 March 1994; there were no fatalities in this age group. The 157 members of the control group were a random sample of all children walking to and from school in the study region. Relative risks in the two groups were estimated by calculation of odds ratios and confidence intervals. It was found that adult accompaniment on the school-home journey was associated with a reduced injury risk; this effect persisted after controlling for age, sex, and socio-economic status. Thus adult accompaniment on journeys between home and school may be able to reduce child pedestrian injury rates significantly. This effect may have important implications for the interpretation of child pedestrian exposure studies.
Samenvatting