In the United States between 1994 and 1998, approximately 5,500 motor vehicle passengers aged 12 and under were killed and 660,000 were injured. Contributing factors in the death and injury of these children include inappropriate selection, installation, and use of child restraints; inappropriate “graduation” from child safety seats to seat belts; and improper seating position within the vehicle. Educational materials that teach caregivers how to protect children in motor vehicles are an important part of an overall strategy to reduce child motor vehicle deaths and injuries. Child passenger safety educational materials for parents, caregivers, teachers, and children must provide up-to-date information about the technical aspects of child passenger safety in a manner consistent with the education, culture, and language ability of their audiences. In addition, if the materials are to be useful as educational tools, they must be easy to obtain. This study explored the content and availability of existing child passenger safety educational materials that target lay audiences, identified gaps in this body of materials, and evaluated the technical accuracy of materials and their appropriateness for diverse audiences. The project staff identified and contacted 158 potential producers of child passenger safety educational materials, and 101 organisations supplied copies of 401 relevant items. This report presents findings from interviews conducted with the 101 organisations about the materials collected. A sample of the materials was evaluated for technical accuracy, cultural competence, and appropriateness for low-literacy audiences, low-income audiences, and children with special health care needs, using an evaluation tool developed by the project staff. Of the 401 items collected for this study, 370 are described on the CD-ROM produced from this research. The CD-ROM contains downloadable versions of many of the items, if permitted by the sponsoring organisations. The study identified child passenger safety educational materials that covered a broad range of topics, including child safety seats, safety belts, seating position, air bags, and child weight issues. These materials are distributed by a variety of methods and to a range of audiences. However, many of the evaluated items do not contain all the basic information required from a resource on child passenger safety; the information most often missing was the importance of rear seating for children 12 and under. Some of the evaluated materials were factually inaccurate, providing incorrect guidelines for rearfacing infants. Few of the evaluated items address the needs of children at highest risk of motor vehicle injury, including those from low-income and non-English-speaking families. Reading levels are generally higher than is recommended for the general public, the materials are not readily available in languages other than English, and few items address the concerns of specific populations, including low-income audiences. Certain topics are rarely addressed, such as guidelines for transporting children with special health care needs or transporting children in vehicles other than standard passenger cars. The field of child passenger safety is evolving rapidly, requiring the revision of existing materials and the development of new materials. It is essential that all materials being disseminated are technically accurate and contain the basic information needed to keep children safe. organisations and agencies that produce educational materials should have them developed and reviewed for technical accuracy by child passenger safety experts. In addition, new materials are needed on specific topics, such as guidelines for children with special health care needs and children riding in vehicles other than cars. New materials are also needed for audiences whose children are at high risk of injury. These materials should be created in accordance with some basic principles of health education: written at recommended reading levels, developed with input from target audiences, field-tested, available in a variety of languages, and inclusive of issues of concern to specific populations. (A)
Samenvatting