Association between driver and child passenger restraint: Analysis of community-based observational survey data from 2005 to 2019

•Community-based child passenger restraint use rates are largely unknown.•Unbelted drivers were more likely to have unrestrained child passengers than belted.•Adherence to child restraint laws was eaxmined via community-based observations.•Unbelted teen drivers were much more likely to have an unres...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of safety research 2021-12, Vol.79, p.168-172
Main Authors: Missikpode, Celestin, Hamann, Cara J., Peek-Asa, Corinne
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accidents, Traffic
Adolescent
Adult
Age
Automobile Driving
Child
Child restraints
Child safety restraint
Child, Preschool
Children
Driver seatbelt
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Logistic Models
Passenger safety
Passengers
Polls & surveys
Rural areas, urban areas
Seat Belts
Surveys and Questionnaires
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Summary:•Community-based child passenger restraint use rates are largely unknown.•Unbelted drivers were more likely to have unrestrained child passengers than belted.•Adherence to child restraint laws was eaxmined via community-based observations.•Unbelted teen drivers were much more likely to have an unrestrained child passenger. Introduction: Crash data suggest an association between driver seatbelt use and child passenger restraint. However, community-based restraint use is largely unknown. We examined the association between driver seatbelt use and child restraint using data from a state-wide observational study. Methods: Data from Iowa Child Passenger Restraint Survey, a representative state-wide survey of adult seat belt use and child passenger safety, were analyzed. A total of 44,996 child passengers age 0–17 years were observed from 2005 to 2019. Information about driver seatbelt use and child restraint was directly observed by surveyors and driver age was reported. Logistic regression was used to examine the association between driver seatbelt use and child restraint adjusting for vehicle type, community size, child seating position, child passenger age, and year. Results: Over the 15-year study period, 4,114 (9.1%) drivers were unbelted, 3,692 (8.2%) children were completely unrestrained, and another 1,601 (3.6%) children were improperly restrained (analyzed as unrestrained). About half of unbelted drivers had their child passengers unrestrained (51.8%), while nearly all belted drivers had their child passengers properly restrained (92.3%). Compared with belted drivers, unbelted drivers had an 11-fold increased odds of driving an unrestrained child passenger (OR = 11.19, 95%CI = 10.36, 12.09). The association between driver seatbelt use and child restraint was much stronger among teenage drivers. Unbelted teenage drivers were 33-fold more likely (OR = 33.34, 95%CI = 21.11, 52.64) to have an unrestrained child passenger. Conclusion: These data suggest that efforts to increase driver seatbelt use may also have the added benefit of increasing child restraint use. Practical applications: Enforcement of child passenger laws and existing education programs for new drivers could be leveraged to increase awareness of the benefits of seatbelt use for both drivers themselves and their occupants. Interventions aimed at rural parents could emphasize the importance of child safety restraints.
ISSN:0022-4375
1879-1247
DOI:10.1016/j.jsr.2021.08.016