None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
The purpose of this study is to see if hands-on demonstration of child restraints, seat distribution and explanation of the right child restraint for a pre-school child can increase the use of appropriate child restraints in children aged 3-5 years. This program will be given to parents and guardians in their child’s pre-school. We will determine whether it works by comparing 14 pre-schools who get the program to 14 pre-schools who do not at the end of the school year. The number of children correctly using appropriate child restraints will be compared between the two arms of the study. It is known that a large proportion of pre-school aged children are not in appropriate child restraints, and/or are not restrained correctly, increasing their risk of injury in road crashes. We will develop and evaluate an educational intervention to increase correct and appropriate child restraint use in 3-5 year olds. The study design is a cluster randomised controlled trial and this type of design is considered a gold standard for evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention. Each of 28 pre-schools involved in the study will be randomly allocated to either receive the intervention or to continue with usual road safety programming. This randomised trial will be one of a small number of similar studies conducted internationally and the findings of this study will contribute important evidence for policy makers and road safety educators.
Interventions
Those centres allocated to the intervention will receive a targeted education and distribution program, incorporating targeted parent education including individual checking and installation advice, pre-school based information with reinforcement through teacher in-service workshops on curriculum appropriate programs and additional educational resources provided to centres.
The educational component will be delivered under the badging of the Kids and Traffic program by early childhood educator
Those centres allocated to the intervention will receive a targeted education and distribution program, incorporating targeted parent education including individual checking and installation advice, pre-school based information with reinforcement through teacher in-service workshops on curriculum appropriate programs and additional educational resources provided to centres. The educational component will be delivered under the badging of the Kids and Traffic program by early childhood educators and will include: 1. Enhanced Kids and Traffic workshop for staff on child restraints. This will be delivered on a single occasion at the beginning of the school year and will be run in the evening for 2 hours. 2. Parent afternoon tea, with hands-on demonstration of child restraints. Restraint checks by research assistants trained in restraint inspection and referral to Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) -certified restraint fitters for bolt fitting when required. This will be run for 1 hour on several days to ensure that all parents have the opportunity to attend. 3. Ongoing reinforcement and support to centre Pamphlets and posters Individualized brochures Ongoing reinforcement with information in newsletters and updated posters and materials throughout year Low cost restraint will be made available to those in need and will be subsidized to 25% of the recommended retail price (approximately $50).
Sponsors
George Institute for International Health, University of Sydney
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Open (masking not used)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
3 Years to 5 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Centre criteria: Community pre-school or childcare centre with at least 20 families enrolled with children aged 3-5 years. Centres in local government areas (LGA) with Socioeconomic Indices for Areas in the lowest 30% of LGA's in Sydney. individual participants at the centre: Parents of children aged 3-5 years enrolled at the participating centres will be eligible to participate in the research study.
Exclusion criteria
English not the instructional language at centre Parking and layout of centre not suitable for safe observation of vehicles on arrival at centre A current active program engaging families on child restraint use.
Outcome results
None listed